ED should excuse himself from SADC Chairmanship: Cyprian Muketiwa Ndawana

Consequently, moral obligations warrant you to forego Sadc Chairmanship. It is irreverent that your Presidency stemmed from electoral depravity that fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections (2011).

A Presidency that owes its claims to power to an election that failed the credibility test cannot be compatible with the integrity of the Sadc Chairmanship. It is my conviction that it is amoral for you to chair Sadc.

Yet, you violated its principles and guidelines governing democracy rom end to end.

Your Excellency, the necessity of debate that was underscored by Jonathan Swift’, an Irish author, when he avowed, “If truth offends, I would rather offend truth be denied,” mandated me to ponder over your the legitimacy of your Presidency and government given the failure of the elections to meet the credibility test.

Methinks the opportunity cost of your Sadc Chairmanship will inevitably be substantial to the region and beyond. With the Commonwealth yet to approve your reentry application submitted in 2018, likewise dull apprehensions are to be expected with Sadc under your Chairmanship.

Considering the socioeconomic meltdown that Zimbabwe is synonymous with, due to corruption, plunder and oppression, it ought have merited you to appreciate your grand inadequacies of your credentials to chair Sadc, notwithstanding that it is rotational.

If anything, the region is exposing itself to prospects of counter development and far-reaching diminishing returns should you assume the Chairmanship. Methinks scrutiny must preceed the simplicity of the rotational principle.

Your Excellency, moral obligations warrant you to forego Sadc Chairmanship. With all due respect, your Presidency is more of a bane than boon to the citizenry in particular and to Sadc in general. With the exodus of Zimbabweans into the region, indeed, woebegone your Presidency.

If Sadc were to introspect, as I see it, they would certainly rue the vicarious responsibility they forfeited following the two harmonized elections you ran that both failed the credibility test. They did not act with diligence. Yet, observer missions revealed the credibility test failures.

Methinks it is about time scrutiny of every incoming Chairman ought be the norm. I reckon the Chairmanship of Zimbabwe, given her backdrop of corruption and oppression, will culminate in regional disintegration and stalled development.

Your Excellency, the contributory negligence of having Zimbabwe at the helm merely by blind allegiances to the rotational principle is a shortcoming Sadc ought to ponder over.

As if your storming to power courtesy of a military orchestrated ascendancy in 2017 was not sufficiently undemocratic, the two harmonised elections that you ran were both contestable, abounding with electoral chicanery. Verily, moral obligations warrant you to forego the Sadc Chairmanship.

Methinks your acrimony towards Zambia is a forerunner of regional hostilities that could emerge, spillovering to weakening the global standing of the region. There is a likelihood that the endeavours of Sadc to negotiate favourable trade agreements, secure investments and promotion of regional interests stand the risk of being impeded by investor confidence.

I anticipate that the region will be held hostage by the reputation of Zimbabwe for corruption, human rights violations, and inconclusive elections to mention but the three sticking points.

It is a poignant exhortation that Mark Twain implored, “Let us endeavour to live that when we die, even the undertaker will be sorry.” It is a call, particularly to any leadership, to pursue virtues such as empathy, integrity, morality and selflessness to leave a remarkable legacy

His call is for a leadership that touches hearts and leaves a lasting impact in the lives of people. Methinks there could be no noble incentive to strive for than for the undertaker, whose profession is to lay the dead to rest, to become sorry that you departed to your maker.

It entails that you will have made significant difference in society. I reckon Twain was urging the leadership to reflect on their actions and strive to be a force for good rather than perpetuating deprivations like electoral chicanery and human rights violations.

It is imperative for you to contemplate on the past harmonized elections which all the accredited observer missions concluded that it had failed the legitimate test. If you were to gather yourself, conscience would obligate you to forego the Sadc Chairmanship.

Your Excellency, just as Pharisees and teachers of the law prioritised their religious powers and status over the well-being of people, contemporary depraved political leadership prioritise powers, wealth and status. Hence your salivating for the resumption of the Sadc Chairmanship

Despite the manifold vices of suppression of dissenting voices, corruption and embezzlement, and the disregard of human rights and the rule of law, you are nonetheless oblivious of your unsuitability for the Sadc Chairmanship.

From where I stand, by elevating Zimbabwe to the Sadc Chairmanship, the region is likely to incur significant opportunity costs. It will encounter decreased investor confidence, on one hand, and brain drain on the other, just as what Zimbabwe is experiencing.

Also, with the sanctions imposed on you by America, on the backdrop of widespread high office corruption, possibilities of reduced access to international funding loom distinctively.

Essentially, the principle of duty to care is the moral obligation to ensuring that member states abide by the agreed upon standards of free, fair and credible elections for regional credibility to be maintained. Yet, your Presidency is an inveterate transgressor of electoral fundamentals.

Your Excellency, it is compelling that democratic tenets and human rights be prioritised. Conset is my conviction is that moral obligations warrant you to forego Sadc Chairmanship. I rest my case.

Notes about the author: Cyprian Muketiwa Ndawana is a public speaking coach, motivational speaker, speechwriter and newspaper columnist.

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