SADC leaders snub Mugabe

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been removed as chairman of the defence body of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). A communiqué released on Tuesday said: “Summit unanimously elected President Joaquim Alberto Chissano of the Republic of Mozambique of the Republic of Mozambique as the next Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation for a term of one year. Summit elected President Benjamin Mkapa of the United Republic of Tanzania as Deputy Chairperson.” According to ‘Business Day’ newly agreed procedures will see Mugabe leaving the organ’s leadership triumvirate next August. In March, SADC leaders decided that Mugabe would no longer be permanent head of the community’s security organ and that it would now be a rotating position. The organ has now been expressly forbidden from declaring war without the approval of a full summit of all member-countries’ leaders. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia sent troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo under the guise of it being a “SADC force”, despite the fact that not all SADC leaders agreed with the decision.