Hopes that Zimbabwe’s neighbours would act to end the deepening crisis were dashed at the weekend when an all-night emergency summit of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) failed to acknowledge an emergency and called only for the immediate release of election results.
Before the summit started, South African President Thabo Mbeki said there was no crisis over the elections in Zimbabwe.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) was amongst those who had welcomed the initiative of Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa to convene a summit of Southern African heads of state to address the current crisis in Zimbabwe.
“It is the sovereign right of the people of Zimbabwe to choose their leaders, define the future of their country and insist upon a peaceful transition”, wrote the WCC general secretary Rev Dr Samuel Kobia in a letter to President Mwanawasa on Friday.
The “emergency summit” to which the heads of state of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) have been invited by President Mwanawasa is a welcomed development, as it will address “the growing political crisis paralysing life and safety in Zimbabwe”, said Kobia.
In a separate letter to the United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, Kobia stressed the Council’s “deep concern about the implications of the current political crisis which may be not only regional but also international”.
The WCC, together with the All Africa Conference of Churches, sent a team to monitor the 29 March elections in Zimbabwe.