Notes following Briefing to Media by Deputy Director General Kingsley Mamabolo, Media Centre, Union Buildings, Pretoria, Thursday 13 March 2008

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.  Thank you for coming.  We felt we should have this briefing to discuss the forthcoming elections in Zimbabwe.

The Republic of Zimbabwe has announced through its Government Gazette of January 2008 that elections will be held on March 29th, 2008 – ie. harmonised presidential, parliamentary and local elections.  This comes from the Constitutional Amendment Bill № 18 which harmonises local, parliamentary and presidential elections and which was jointly adopted by political partners in September 2007 and subsequently signed into law.

We have three candidates standing as Presidential candidates – Morgan Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe and Dr Simba Makoni.

South Africa has been invited to be part of the SADC Observer Mission to witness these elections which will be led by Angola as Chair of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.  The Angolan delegation will be led by a Minister as yet to be determined.  This Minister will therefore lead the SADC Observer Mission.

We have already structured the leadership – you will have the Angolan delegation who would have been supported by other members of the Troika – Tanzania and Swaziland – however, Swaziland will not participate and it has therefore been suggested that South Africa should be part of the leadership – for two reasons – the first of which is that South Africa has led this process in 2005 and therefore has the expertise and experience gathered in that process.  The second reason is that South Africa is the incoming chairperson of SADC – and will take over from Zambia.  Zambia will also be part of the leadership collective that will direct this Mission.

The South African contingent consists of 55 persons – it is a multi-sectoral delegation consisting of members of various political parties, civil society representing different interest groups – women, churches, youth, business, etc – and government officials.  This total figure comprises of 15 members of parliament, 15 civil society members, 21 government officials from different departments and four IEC technical experts.

As far back as the 8th March 2008 we had SADC observers deployed to Zimbabwe.  We are expecting that the rest of the contingent will be deployed from 20 March 2008. 

In Zimbabwe, we have, when I left yesterday, 50 members of the advance team from different SADC countries which came from about 5 countries – Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia.  We are expecting to send the rest of our team on 20 March 2008.  We deploy an advance team to comply with the SADC principles that state that an observer mission should be deployed two weeks prior to an election.

The objective of the SADC observer mission is to assess whether the elections in Zimbabwe are in compliance with the SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections and to assess whether the government of Zimbabwe has enabled an environment conducive to holding free and fair elections.

We are expected to send different groups.  You have 10 provinces in Zimbabwe and we expect that there would be about 150 up to 200 observers from the SADC countries which would then be deployed to each of the 10 provinces.  You will have regional and sub-regional representation in the provinces.

The observers will be tasked with going wherever required, collect information that will be collated at the headquarters of the operation that will be established in Harare and to prepare a report as to how we view the way in which the elections were conducted. 

We would also, at the same time, engaging with different roleplayers.  We had already, when I was in Zimbabwe during the last few days, spoke to members of civil society.  We are very keen to assure these roleplayers that we will remain as impartial and neutral as possible, that we are in Zimbabwe not to endorse anything but to observe and monitor the elections.

If I consider the elections of 2005, I can anticipate the debate of whether we are observers or monitors.  What we tended to do in 2005 was also to assist – because the objective of SADC is really to try and help make the elections in member states as credible as possible.  Sometimes this is enabled by the environment, sometimes it is not.  If you remember 2005 we had all those regulations which the opposition perceived, and indeed the perception was held by most, as being repressive and intimidating.

So South Africa had to go to Zimbabwe and conduct an observer mission in that environment.  We maintained that we were not in Zimbabwe to change the constitution of the country – we reiterated that the objective of a SADC observer mission was not to change the laws and regulations of the country in question.  We are basing ourselves on the principles and guidelines of the country in question, but also on the constitution of that country.  If the Constitution is flawed, it is really not the fault of the SADC observer mission but the country.  SADC cannot go to a country without being invited by the government of the country necessarily implying that the laws and regulations of the country have to be respected.

Our duty, even now, is really to attend to every serious complaint that could lead to some flaw in the running and observing of the elections.

This is the background I wanted to give you.

Questions and answers

Question   Ambassador, about the complaints – is South Africa publicising to the people of Zimbabwe that if they have complaints these can be addressed to the SADC Observer Mission?

Answer   The SADC Observer Mission was launched yesterday Wednesday 12 March 2008 at 08h30.  We made it very clear to all stakeholders that should there be a need for us to intervene, we would do so – when there was a complaint about ZBC we sent a delegation to investigate the matter.

If Morgan Tsvangirai wants to meet with us for some reason or the other, we meet with him.

We have made ourselves known to everybody and introduce ourselves to everybody, we establish and maintain dynamic contact with everybody as we conduct our observer mission.

If there are allegations of violence and torture we deploy a team to investigate.  On a daily basis all these incidents are reported and these would constitute the basis of our final report when we have concluded our observer mission.

Question   Ambassador, South Africa deployed a South African observer mission to the last elections while also having a significant presence on the SADC Observer Mission.  This is not to be case this time?

Answer   We have decided that we will not deploy a national team this time round and we will participate as part of the SADC contingent.

Question   Ambassador, in terms of code of conduct, (inaudible)

Answer   We will try and not be repressive of any view.   But, you must remember that we work within a collective – a Southern African unit.  Where everybody speaks and we all move in different directions, sometimes unfortunately, and I was appealing to all the members of parliament yesterday when I said we cannot be the same, we will have differing views.  But at the same time we cannot make these differing views known to everyone.  We are in Zimbabwe to observe the elections.  The observers are not just South African but other countries will also be represented.  We would appeal to all members of parliament to ensure that we can represent ourselves as South Africa with that integrity.

Clearly, we will have differences but there must be a way in which we can address and express these.

We are not part of the mission to score political points, to prove that as a member of parliament and member of the ANC, I was more vocal than the DA member.  This is not the point.  Some sort of leadership within that collective of other nations must be expressed. 

It cannot be that a solution can be that one person tries to wave the flag saying that everyone else is going in one direction and I must resist.  We must have some kind of code of conduct to which you must adhere if you are part of the collective.

We have a way in which concerns can be raised – if we draw up a report and you have disagreements, you are free to do so and that point will be noted.  But not in public.

Question   Ambassador, in terms of the availability to polling stations: statistically people have 22 seconds to cast their votes.  Is there a plan to increase numbers of polling stations or increasing time for the elections?

Answer   Whether we can persuade the Zimbabweans to change – it is very important to understand our role.  We do not have the power to change what the Zimbabweans have decided, we can only give advice.  We can only raise the question and leave it to the Zimbabweans to address the matter as they see fit.

Question   Ambassador, for how after the elections will observer missions remain in Zimbabwe?  What other criteria will be used to ascertain the success of the elections particularly in the rural areas which are more difficult to monitor?

Answer   The SADC Observer Mission would want to remain in Zimbabwe until the end of the elections – maybe not the entire team but at least the leadership collective would want to witness the observation.

We will obviously be there until we release our findings which would come after the elections have been finalised.

Question   Ambassador, will any assistance be provided to the media to be accredited to cover the elections?  This would be very important in terms of global coverage of the elections?

Answer   What we could do, is raise some of these issues with the mission on the ground and request their intervention in order to understand the rationale of the Zimbabwean government in taking such decisions.

I am simply saying we can do the best we can in order to intervene where possible.

At the end of the day, the government of Zimbabwe will decide who to allow to cover the elections.  We can merely note such elements in our report.

We must find a way in which to pass on these concerns to the SADC observer mission on the ground.

Question   Ambassador, (inaudible)

Answer   This is a bit unfortunate.  We have to remember that people stay in hotels and at some stage they have to go to their hotels.  I think we would want to make sure that people do fulfill their responsibilities to monitor the elections because the mission that is at stake.  If the Mission is perceived to be merely endorsing the process and not doing anything but write a report, it would be a terrible reflection on the Mission.

If we say we want to be of any assistance to everybody, it is by challenging some of these perceptions and doing what we need to do in all areas that we can make a difference.

Question   Ambassador, why is the South African government not deploying its own Observer Mission to Zimbabwe?

Answer   The South African government is part of SADC.  We have in the past deployed national teams when we perceived a need to do so.  When you have issues like those you had in Zimbabwe in 2000 and 2002 – hotly contested issues – and in 2005 where you really had a crisis situation – you will note that we have deployed missions where we felt there was a need because of the difficult environment.  We do not deploy national monitoring teams everywhere.  We are a small country and cannot afford to deploy teams to all elections.

I think the leadership is of the view that these elections will not be as hotly contested as those held before.  The Zimbabweans themselves are saying there is a big difference in terms of the environment that has been created.  We have spoken to members of civil society who have said to us that there is an improvement.  You can judge where this improvement lies.  There are issues regarding the implementation of the new regulations but you have Zimbabwean parties who have agreed through the mediation on the way forward for the country.  Our understanding is that during negotiations held in South Africa they have reached some agreement on what the way forward should resemble.

The 2002 election results are still in dispute, in 2005 you had various incidents of violence – compared to this the environment is much improved.  As I say, the Zimbabweans themselves are saying this and have said so just a few days ago.

Question   Ambassador, the decision has been made by the Zimbabwean government to invite only specific countries to observe these elections.  Is there any view from the South African government on this matter?  Will the credibility of the elections not be influenced by this?

Answer   Each country has the right to observe countries to observe their elections or not.  The Zimbabwean government has taken this stance based on its own positions.  You will have to discuss this with them.

Question   Ambassador, what is the selection criteria for members of the South African observer team to the SADC Mission?

Answer   We said to Parliament that observers are required and Parliament decides how to go about this process.

Question   Ambassador, will the SADC Observer Mission be co-ordinating with other observers?
 
Answer   The SADC Observer Mission intends to collaborate with other Missions on the ground, in particular with the African Union Mission.  We will ourselves, as SADC, cover all the provinces although it is good to share experiences and have discussions with others. We will not just be based in Harare.

We will be sending our own reports to our own governments.  The Parliamentarians are the only people mandated to present a report to Parliament and this they will do.

Ours will be a SADC report.

Question   Ambassador, how seriously would it be regarded if large numbers of the European observers and/or media are denied accreditation to cover the elections?

Answer   European observers are not welcomed as the European Union but the ambassadors of European countries are part of observer missions on the ground.  All the ambassadors in Zimbabwe have been invited, including the Ambassadors of the European Union.

We will make the observation that the media has been excluded from covering the elections.  An election campaign not covered by the media will certainly be considered a challenge and we will advise the Zimbabwean government accordingly.

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001

13 March 2008