Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has failed to use his leverage as incoming Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairperson to influence the regional body to withdraw its election observer mission report which was endorsed by its extraordinary summit in Angola last year and a special ministerial meeting in Zambia prior to that unprecedentedly rejecting his re-election as flawed, disputed and a fraud. The Sadc report stands as the official record of how the regional body viewed the Zimbabwe general elections held in August last year won by Mnangagwa and Zanu PF amid a series of illegalities and fraud. The Sadc election observer mission said the polls did not comply with Zimbabwe’s own constitution and the Sadc principles and guidelines governing democratic elections.
Although Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, who did not physically attend the Harare summit in protest, said elections in different Sadc member states held during his tenure as chairperson of the Sadc troika of the organ on politics, defence and security were “reasonably peaceful”, he did not withdraw the official report of the Sadc election observer mission which he presided over when he sent former vice president of his country Nevers Mumba to lead the delegation to Zimbabwe. This means Sadc stands by its report and Mnangagwa in their official eyes thus remains a leader who came to power through fraud which they called out and recorded and endorsed officially. Mnangagwa’s installation.