Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA)

SADC must act to end sham democracy

Women in Lesotho should be celebrating another step towards true equality this week. And some of them should be preparing for Chieftainship. But they’re not. Instead the cause of women’s rights has suffered a severe blow – thanks to the reactionary ruling of the country’s Constitutional Court in the Masupha chieftainship case.

Four years after the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) facilitated by SADC in Zimbabwe, the outcome of the process remains fiercely contested and in the balance. The Agreement, which set out to prepare the political process for a generally acceptable election after the debacle of 2008, has been marked by the battle for the state that has constituted the politics of the GPA.

Zimbabwe's draft constitution has been agreed by COPAC and the three party principals and will now go to parliament for approval and then to a referendum. SALC's Anneke Meerkotter analyses its good and bad points.