A man walks on a main road in Harare in August 2023. Zimbabwe is hosting the 44th ordinary SADC summit in Harare next month. (JOHN WESSELS / AFP) Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is due to take up the rotational annual chairpersonship of SADC at a meeting in Harare next month.
Preparations have included villas for delegates, planting trees, and rounding up potential troublemakers. The Zimbabwean government has spent more than R3.8 billion giving Harare a facelift in preparation for the two-day event.
With new roads, villas for delegates, luxury coaches, new trees, and above all a call for a demonstration-free week, Zimbabwe is pulling out all stops to host the 44th ordinary SADC summit of heads of state and government in mid-August. Judging by the scale of the preparations, the government is counting on the event as a major image-building opportunity. The summit is due to see President Emmerson Mnangagwa take over the leadership of the regional bloc from Zambia's Hakainde Hichilema.
The SADC chairpersonship is annual on a rotational basis, and for the military-backed regime in Harare, it is a big deal. "I commend the government and people of our country who are accelerating preparations and works related to the event," Mnangagwa said on Tuesday at the burial of a national hero, retired Brigadier Michael Chaminuka. Zimbabwe last held the chair in 2014 under the late Robert Mugabe when the summit was held in the resort town of Victoria Falls.
Suppression of freedom The sum.