Mugabe was quoted by many media outlets as vowing that if Zanu PF loses the election; his party is prepared to fight because the country could not be sold to the British at the stroke of a pen by voting for the so-called MDC puppets.

Given the sadistic retribution campaign that has left several opposition activists either dead or brutally injured and seen ordinary citizens harassed, displaced and starved after the government suspended all food aid activities a fortnight ago, it is certainly now overdue for the countries of the SADC region to take a clear and unequivocal stance and speak with one voice to openly condemn Mugabe’s callous and shameless repressive actions on innocent citizens who have the right to elect a government of their choice.

The SADC countries need to act now to prevent the problem of state impunity and brazen election fraud from spreading like a veld fire within the region by openly condemning Mugabe not only for his irresponsible, cowardly and desperate act of sounding the war drums and unleashing state terror on his people, but more importantly because he has flouted each and every principle of the SADC protocol that ensures the attainment of free and fair elections in the region.

Very recent reports from organisations such as the Human Rights Trust, Amnesty International and other credible NGOs in Zimbabwe, provide undeniable evidence of the systematic emasculation of the opposition by denying it political space to campaign while ordinary citizens are also being displaced by the state terror machinery from their constituencies in a way that will certainly infringe not only on their primary right to vote, but also their basic rights to assembly and to freely express themselves in the coming run off.

Yet apart from Botswana that reportedly summoned the Zimbabwean ambassador to openly condemn these violations, SADC has watched helplessly like a lame duck while the Zimbabwean government shreds, tatters and spits on the region’s sacred principles for transparent and accountable elections.

Surely, it requires no rocket scientist to convince SADC that the electoral environment in Zimbabwe is not only pregnant with violence and political intolerance, but also unfit for undertaking an election that will reflect the true wishes of the people in a free and fair election. Add to that the lack of institutional and professional capacity by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to even run a transparent and competitive village plebiscite for chieftainship, then you will know that SADC is like a rabid watchdog that snoozes during a housebreak but mauls its owner on arrival because its deafening silence to Mugabe’s statements and actions clearly amounts to a betrayal of the Zimbabwean citizens whose political rights need protection from the regional body’s principles.

The spiral of silence by SADC also implies a tacit approval of the Zimbabwe government’s actions on its defenceless citizens because it is indeed unbelievable that the regional bloc has neither openly rebuked Mugabe nor advised against the run off due to the acute persistent political violence, but expects Zimbabweans to exercise their right to vote in an atmosphere of torture, murder, intimidation, starvation, and war mongering.

For the record, Section 7.4 of the SADC Mauritius Protocol makes it a requirement that the Zimbabwean government must safeguard human and civil liberties of all citizens including the freedom of movement, assembly, association, expression, and campaigning as well as access to the media by all parties.

Yet in a typically flippant and defiant but unprecedented fashion, Mugabe has shown SADC that he cares less about them than they do about him and proceeded to launch an assault not only on the SADC principles, but also the country’s constitution in a way that makes a mockery of the rule of law and the whole election process as defined in the SADC protocol.

Imagine what difference it could have made for Zimbabweans and the region if SADC had by now released a statement where it openly and clearly condemns the violence and insists on the respect of the electoral fundamentals as espoused by the Mauritius protocol? This simple act of moral and political responsibility would have not only demonstrated to the Mugabe regime that the time for its political demagoguery flip-flops is up, but would have even potentially shifted the paradigm of regional politics from reactionary politics to active political engagement.

Active political engagement means that SADC must not take Mugabe’s war mongering as just hot air or the ranting of a tired and aging politician because evidence on the ground shows that the seeds of war are being planted and it can just take Mugabe’s second defeat to spark the flames of a large scale retributive campaign and uncontrollable violence that will leave the national with deeper scars and political wounds such as we saw recently in Kenya.

SADC must know that Zimbabwe now bears all the early warning signs of a conflict that can totally go nasty for everyone and everywhere, including countries in the region that would be indirectly affected. In dealing with Mugabe squarely and head on, SADC must know that they are not necessarily doing Zimbabweans a favour, but are also setting the political record of the region straight especially at a time when the world is becoming increasingly cynical about the commitment to democratic principles by certain influential leaders within the region. This is why the outcome of the presidential election in March which left Mugabe at his weakest point in the national and regional scheme of things, should have been taken advantage of by SADC to put unrelenting pressure on him by insisting on the respect for the Mauritius electoral principles as a precondition for the run off.

The lack of a robust and pro-active action plan by the regional bloc to deal with Mugabe’s defiance does not only demonstrate SADC’s thinking fatigue regarding the Zimbabwean problem, but also shows that it lacks a clear and well defined containment and enforcement strategy to deal with renegade states that defy the SADC principles on free and fair elections. Sadly, that means even lack of simple, open and clear statements that insist on those electoral principles that member states like Zimbabwe willingly ratified and vowed to uphold.

Mugabe’s loss in the first round provided the region with a rare moment to force Mugabe to change course and pursue policies that will lead to national reconciliation and healing, and not the political nightmares that Zimbabweans continue to face that are perpetrated by a man who lost the election but survived on a technicality.