NCA, Zim civics in SA hold successful rally at SADC summit

NCA Press Release 15 June 2011 NCA and Zimbabwe civics in SA hold a successful rally at the SADC summit By Blessing Vava Sandton-The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) Regional office with other civics hosted a successful rally in Sandton on Saturday 11 June 2011, at the Extra-ordinary summit held in Sandton South Africa discussing the situation on Madagascar and Zimbabwe.  The extra ordinary summit came at the request of the SADC Troika on politics, defence and security cooperation meeting held in Livingstone Zambia on the 31st of March 2011. In the Livingstone communiqué the Troika called for an end to political violence. In a clear show of impatience with ZANU-PF's blatant continued sponsoring and sanctioning political violence the Troika communiqué 16 and 17 had this to say: 16. Summit noted with grave concern the polarization of the political environment as characterized by, inter alia, resurgence of violence, arrests and intimidation in Zimbabwe. 17. In view of the above, Summit resolved that: a. there must be an immediate end of violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and any other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit of GPA;  b. all stakeholders to the GPA should implement all the provisions of the GPA and create a conducive environment for peace, security, and free political activity  c. SADC should assist Zimbabwe to formulate guidelines that will assist in holding an election that will be peaceful, free and fair, in accordance with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections;  Over a 1000 people gathered to demand from SADC an end to political violence, a return to the barracks of the military and the creation of a conducive environment for the holding of peaceful free and fair elections. Speaking in Sandton the NCA National Spokesperson Madock Chivasa called on SADC to turn the screws on ZANU-PF which he said is the architect of politically motivated violence.  He called on SADC especially to ensure that women are protected from the brutality of ZANU-PF as the country approach yet another election. The NCA reiterated its call for embedded monitoring from SADC and civic organisation as a matter of urgency. “Through our Act Now against political Violence, Rape and Torture campaign we are calling on SADC to impress it upon Mugabe and ZANU-PF that violence does not pay. We will ensure that our mothers and sisters are protected from ZANU-PF violence. It will be impossible to have a credible election in an environment of fear and intimidation as we have today". Chivasa called on the political parties to respect women and their right to participate on political issues. Chivasa also called on Zimbabweans to stand up and speak out against violence and said that the NCA campaign was a great platform to demand an end to political violence, Dewa Mavhinga of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said its time that "SADC makes it clear to ZANU PF that a time to give peace a chance is now".  Munjodzi Mutandiri of the NCA regional office emphasised that civics must intensify their efforts to mobilise and organise masses to put pressure on the dictatorship in Zimbabwe. He said the NCA will continue to work with all progressive forces in the fight for democracy and end to violence intimidation and torture. Mutandiri said the NCA' s Act Now Against Political Violence Rape and Torture Campaign has gathered momentum and ZANU-PF will find it difficult to continue using violence as a tool as Zimbabweans are dusting themselves and demanding to be treated with dignity from Zambezi to Limpopo and even those in the Diasporas. The SADC summit reiterated an end to violence and called on a conducive environment to be created before an election is held dealing a massive blow to ZANU-PF which had hoped to push for an election this year while their candidate President Mugabe is still fit to run a campaign and before their resources run out to sustain their militias and the army who have been deployed in the rural areas.