Top MDC Officials Seek Election Game Changer at SADC Summit

  • Blessing  Zulu

Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khuphe

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has dispatched Deputy Prime Minister Thokozane Khupe and Mr. Tsvangirai’s top aide to lobby regional leaders to discuss the Zimbabwe election crisis at the Southern African Development Community summit in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Regional leaders converge in Lilongwe Saturday.

Director of the SADC Organ for Politics, Defence and Security, Lieutenant Colonel Tankie Mothae, has indicated that the recently held polls in Zimbabwe are not part of the agenda for this year's SADC summit.

Mothae told VOA that Zimbabwe will be discussed briefly alongside other regional hot spots such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho.

MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora told VOA Studio 7 that Khupe and Minister of State in Mr. Tsvangira’is office, Jameson Timba, will submit a dossier on how elections were allegedly rigged by Zanu PF.

Zimbabwe civil society groups and their regional counterparts have also resolved to submit a petition at the summit to pressure the regional grouping into assessing what transpired at the recent elections won by Zanu PF.

The Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation of Malawi, in collaboration with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, made the resolution at a civil society and media feedback meeting held in Lilongwe Thursday.

Regional coordinator, Joy Mabenge of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said SADC must tackle Harare head on.