By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga to serve as Acting President in his absence following his attendance of a SADC summit in Zimbabwe.
He is attending the 44th Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community’s heads of state and government.
Ramaphosa will be on a working visit in Harare on Saturday to take part in the 44th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Sadc region, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.
Motshekga was sworn in as president for the day by outgoing chief justice Raymond Zondo.
Magwenya said Ramaphosa had already arrived in Harare to mark not only the 30th anniversary of the country’s democracy but also 30th anniversary of the country’s membership of and participation in Sadc.
“[Ramaphosa] will participate in discussions on the agenda of the summit that include the status of member state contributions, regional food and nutrition security, status of health in the region, implementation of the Sadc industrialisation strategy and road map as well as candidatures to continental and international organisations,” said Magwenya.
It’s the first time the 16-member bloc will meet in Zimbabwe in a decade. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa will also assume leadership of the SADC – a critical first for his administration.
But that glory is marred by what activists call “paranoia” from the government as police units flooded the streets this week in anticipation of protests.
Since June, security officials have attacked activists and opposition party members at private hangouts and protest venues, accusing them of trying to disrupt the SADC summit. Seventy-eight people, including Jameson Timba, leader of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), were arrested without bail on June 16 at a political gathering that authorities said was “unauthorised”. On June 27, another set of protesters demanding the release of the detained CCC members outside a court in Harare were also bundled away by security forces.
About 160 people have been arrested since June, according to Amnesty International. Police officials hit protesters during arrests and psychologically torture them in detention, lawyers representing them said.
Mnangagwa was re-elected with more than half the vote, but CCC candidate Nelson Chamisa described the election as a “giant fraud”, alleging large-scale rigging.
South Africa, Zimbabwe’s neighbour and a leading SADC member, has especially come under the spotlight.
Pretoria has positioned itself in recent years as a champion of the underdog under former Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor. It was South Africa that dragged Israel to the International Court of Justice in December, accusing it of genocide over its war in Gaza.
But curiously, some say, Pretoria has not commented on rights violations in its neighbourhood.
Several other SADC members, including Tanzania and Angola, have also faced recent backlash for rights violations.