The joke made in Africa is perfect! While the US recognises the flaws in the elections and keeps its sanctions against Zimbabwe in place, the SADC countries have elected Robert “Bob the Vote-Rigger” Mugabe as the new Head of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Anybody still laughing? With this Mugabe has scored a major diplomatic comeback after Southern African leaders hailed his re-election and selected him the next chairperson of the SADC. Mugabe was at a weekend summit in Lilongwe elected deputy chairperson of the 15-nation bloc for the next year. This means he will host the next summit in Harare in August 2014 and automatically succeed Malawi’s Joyce Banda whose one-year term as chairperson began on Sunday.
Part of a communiqué released after the summit read: “The Summit elected Her Excellence Joyce Banda [the President] of the Republic of Malawi and His Excellence Robert Gabriel Mugabe President of the Republic of Zimbabwe as chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of SADC respectively.” Zimbabwe’s state owned Herald quoted Mugabe as saying the country should “adequately prepare” for next year’s summit. Mugabe said the summit was unanimous in endorsing the 31 July elections “despite efforts by Western posers and non-governmental organisations who sought to discredit the polls”. SADC’s outgoing executive secretary, Tomaz Salomao, said there was nothing surprising about Mugabe’s election to succeed Banda next year.
What does HE smoke?