SW Radio Africa (London)
Alex Bell
13 November 2008
Less than two months after the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) awarded Zimbabwe a second chance to hold the regional bloc's 13th summit - the government this week announced the event has been postponed until next year.
The summit had originally been set to take place in May, but was called off after state-sponsored violence swept through the country in the wake of Robert Mugabe's election loss to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the March polls. In postponing the summit at the peak of the political violence, COMESA said it was doing so to give Zimbabwe time to 'conclude its electoral processes'.
Last month, in what appeared to be a hasty show of confidence in the country as a result of the signing of the now redundant power sharing deal, COMESA announced the summit was going ahead in November. But on Wednesday the Minister of Industry and International Trade, Obert Mpofu, said in the statement that the event has again been postponed - this time until the New Year.
The announcement has fueled speculation that the country, in the midst of a devastating humanitarian and economic crisis, cannot afford to host the event. But Minister Mpofu has insisted the postponement has nothing to do with finances but is rather to allow for progress on the planned merger of COMESA with two other regional groupings, the five-member East African Community (EAC) and the 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC).
"Of immediate priority is the harmonisation of the common external tariffs of COMESA and the EAC," Mpofu said in a statement this week.
The summit, where Zimbabwe is due to take over the rotating chairmanship of the body from Kenya is now expected to be held in the first six months of 2009. But with the complete collapse of the country's economy, as well as no end in sight to the political crisis, it would appear more likely that the event will be moved to a different host country.
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Ha! They cannot even afford to host their "brother" counties for a regularly scheduled intra-government meeting! Why don't the guest countries ask where the money deposited with the RBZ allocated for the Global Fund to fight HIV and Tuburculosis went?
Curiously, ZANU-PF/Mugabe cannot "host" such delegations while their economy is imploding!
As long as ZANU-PF/Mugabe are in charge, there is no use in providing ANY aid, as it has been shown that ZANU-PF/Mugabe will "expropriate" or otherwise "borrow" any foreign currency deposited with RBZ!