Mugabe loses control of regional defence body

Southern African leaders have announced measures to rein in a controversial regional defence body chaired by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who had battled to keep it under his control. The ‘Namibian’ reported on Monday that a communique released on Friday at the end of a one-day summit in the Namibian capital said the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) defence arm would from now on have to report to the bloc’s chairperson. “The organ will now be integrated into the SADC structures. The chairperson shall be on a rotational basis for a period of one year,” the communique said. Mugabe caused unease among SADC states when he rallied fellow members Angola and Namibia to intervene in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to support the Kinshasa government against Ugandan and Rwandan-backed rebels. Playing down Mugabe’s loss of control over the body, Namibia’s president and current SADC chairperson, Sam Nujoma, said: “There is no division in SADC. We remain united and all decisions were reached amicably and unanimously.” Diplomats said the move was a major blow to Mugabe, who faces political and economic crisis at home. The organ on politics, defence and security had been under Mugabe since its inception in 1996 and remained outside the control of SADC proper. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former president, had fiercely opposed the idea, arguing that it should fall under SADC. The summit also agreed to create four directorates under which all existing SADC sectors would be clustered according to their cross-sectoral linkages. These would be: trade, industry, finance and investment; infrastructure and services; food, agriculture and natural resources; social and human development and special programmes. The summit agreed that the phasing out of existing commissions and sectors would be undertaken in two years and the new directorates would be established by 2002.