Chamisa appeals to SADC over ‘Zimbabwe leadership deficit’; more than 100 activists arrested ahead of summit

By SABC News and Own Correspondent

Opposition politician and former leader of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), Nelson Chamisa, has called on Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the rest of Africa, to help Zimbabwe deal with what he called a leadership deficit.

He made the call ahead of next week’s meeting of SADC leaders in Zimbabwe.

Chamisa, who says that he was forced by the situation in Zimbabwe to step away from politics, called for fresh elections in the country, to fix its broken politics.

“My role is to bring that other piece of Zimbabwe, that Mr (Emmerson) Mnangagwa doesn’t have,” he said.

“The country is divided by half; in fact we have the majority, but when we go according to the election that was rigged we have almost half and half, and that tells you that we have a legitimate voice to making sure that we correct that disputed election, we correct the governance deficit that we have, we correct the issues that have bedevilled this country.

“Zimbabwe has not been in its best of place since the 2000s and we still have those problems. Those problems have been before SADC, before the African Union (AU), before the world, and we want these issues to be resolved.”

Human Rights Watch says the opposition and civil society groups are facing an intensifying crackdown ahead of a regional summit Zimbabwe is hosting in August.

More than one hundred activists have been arrested over the past two months.

Home Minister Kazembe Kazembe has accused the opposition of pushing for demonstrations around the time of the summit to provoke a “heavy-handed response” to attract international attention.