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The Star newspaper in Johannesburg today (Wednesday, April 16) provides some interesting leaks from the SADC meeting held over the weekend in Lusaka, including the following:

 

1.                  That Mwanawasa continuously took Mbeki to task over his brokerage on Zimbabwe, including telling him that he must be sincere in his approach.

 

2.                  He refused to accept Mugabe’s input in the meeting via Mbeki telling Mbeki, “If Robert Mugabe has anything to say to me as chairperson, then he can talk to me himself,” reminding Mbeki that he was creating the impression that he was becoming “Mugabe’s messenger”.

 

3.                  When Mbeki tried to prevent Morgan Tsvangirai from addressing the Summit, Mwanawasa told him that they had discussed this issue two days before by phone, adding, “Would you like the whole house to hear the contents of our conversation?”

 

4.                  Bingu waMutarika of Malawi pushed for Tsvangirai to address the house by saying, “We don’t need to take our understanding of what’s happening in Zimbabwe from CNN and international channels. We have a man next door who can explain it to us instead.”

 

5.                  Tsvangirai was told by DRC and Mozambique that he could not claim to have won the presidency simply because he had won the parliamentary elections.

 

6.                  Simba Makoni laid claim to his belief that he would be the ideal candidate to lead a transitional government, but Mbeki reminded him that it was illegal and illogical for him to step up to the presidential podium with less than 10 percent of the electorate behind him.

 

7.                  When the Zimbabwe government delegation claimed that Tsvangira had rigged the vote by changing the figures that were sent by phone, Mwanawasa said this was stretching their imagination too far. He reminded the meeting of his legal background and knowledge of issues pertaining to the counting of votes.