PRESIDENT Mnangagwa is expected to arrive in Luanda, Angola, this morning to attend the Sadc Extraordinary Summit aimed at addressing the security situation in Eastern DRC where rebels are unleashing violence, resulting in over 260 000 people being displaced.
The summit is set to kick-off in the afternoon.
Zimbabwe is not on the agenda, contrary to unfounded claims by some CCC officials on social media, who are deliberately misleading their supporters.
An extraordinary summit discusses just one issue, and in this case, it is the security situation in the DRC, where thousands of people have been displaced in North Kivu since the beginning of October due to violence.
Some senior SADC officials yesterday said if Zimbabwe was to be smuggled onto the agenda, it would be mischief on the part of a Zimbabwean who works in the Sadc Secretariat, who is said to be “very close to CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa and is paid by the European Union”.
It could not be immediately verified if the man is on the payroll of the EU.
Senior Government officials yesterday said the man (name supplied) was not seconded to Sadc by Zimbabwe, but applied through the normal channels.
He is said to be acting for a number of people and organisations in Sadc, the EU and the United States, who want Zimbabwe to remain under “constant pressure”.
Yesterday, officials from Sadc member States had a series of meetings, with the first involving Chiefs of Defence, followed by that senior government officials, in which Zimbabwe was represented by Permanent Secretary for Defence Mr Aaron Nhepera.
After lunch, there was a meeting for ministers, with Zimbabwe represented by Acting Defence Minister Kazembe Kazembe.
In an interview, Minister Kazembe said the Sadc Extraordinary Summit was a continuation of the first meeting held virtually on Tuesday, but had to be deferred to today after some areas experienced connectivity challenges.
“We are basically here for the continuation of the Sadc Extraordinary Summit that took place virtually, and was then adjourned,” said Minister Kazembe.
“Tomorrow (today) Heads of State are meeting and we are actually expecting His Excellency the President, Dr ED Mnangagwa tomorrow (today). “But we are already here because in the next few minutes (yesterday) we will be going into an Inter-Ministerial meeting, which is a meeting of ministers.
“But earlier on, there was a meeting of senior officials, and before that, there was a meeting for the Chiefs of Defence. So, the summit is continuing; it started a few days ago.” Herald
