THIS IS LIFE

By Susan Mwape in Kinshasa Delegates at the 5th People’s Summit castigated the new trend of coalition governments in the region. This new phenomenon is now firmly entrenched in countries such as Zimbabwe and Madagascar. The development is viewed as defeating the purpose of holding democratic elections due to the fact that it subvert the democratic choices of the people of the region. The phenomenon was first introduced in Africa in 2008 following Kenya’s disputed elections. This led to the formation of a government of national unity after more than 1000 people had lost their lives in post electoral violence. The same template was used to solve the electoral dispute in Zimbabwe and is now being finalised for Madagascar. The SADC People’s Summit deliberated on the matter at length. In a presentation made to the summit by Dewa Mavhinga of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), it was noted that the challenges in Africa are around Governance and leadership. Mavhinga noted that there app

By Susan Mwape - In Kinshasa Over 200 people from the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region converged at the Shaumba Centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for fifth Edition of the People’s Summit on 4-5 September, 2009. The Summit running under the theme “Reclaiming SADC for People’s Solidarity and Development Cooperation: Taking Ownership of our Resources for People’s Security.” The summit which was officially opened by a Director in the Ministry of Regional and International Cooperation, Sylvestre Pakabomba B Koni. In his opening remarks Koni expressed his wish to have the people of DRC involved in issues of governance. “You are the people who are extraordinary on which the government of this country depend on. You have really said it when say nothing can be done without us,” said Koni. He applauded the Civil Society for organizing the summit and participating in the development of DRC and the wider SADC region. Earlier on, Francois Butendi, Acting Executive