Forget about all the talk about political repression, human rights violations, and economic suffering in Zimbabwe. The real excitement on Facebook is Mugabe’s speech, at the just-concluded Windhoek SADC summit in Namibia, that people are talking about. Mugabe was the summit’s keynote speaker, a summit that also saw former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda deliver an emotional speech as he reminisced about the SADC story, and Africa’s hopes. I have not read the speech yet, but judging from comments on my facebook wall Robert Mugabe, Africa’s oldest leader, remains popular among Namibians, and Africans (especially the youth) in general.
What is also clear from the SADC Summit’s Communiqué is that the region’s leaders opted to stick with one of their own instead of chastising president Mugabe about his government’s land seizures policy, including failure to adhere to SADC tribunal. Read more about the SADC Communiqué here: http://www.southerntimesafrica.com/article.php?title=COMMUNIQUE_OF_THE_30TH_JUBILEE_SUMMIT__OF_SADC_HEADS_OF_STATE_AND_GOVERNMENT_&id=4683
In the meantime, the High Court has ruled the eight-day ban on demonstrations and public gatherings unconstitutional. The High Court ruling follows a court challenge launched by the chairperson of the Namibia Non-governmental Organisations Forum (Nangof), and four other trustees to nullify the police ban and section 2 of the Public Gatherings Proclamation, AG 23 of 1989. The group was represented by Norman Tjombe, a well-known Namibian human rights lawyer.
