RB expected in Botswana today for Madagascar indaba

PRESIDENT Banda is today expected to leave for Botswana where he is due to chair a Southern African Development Community (SADC) mediation meeting on Madagascar.

This is contained in a statement issued in Lusaka yesterday by special assistant to the President for press and public relations Dickson Jere.

Mr Jere said Mr Banda was mandated by southern African heads of State and government, who met in Namibia two weeks ago to convene a special meeting of all political parties in Madagascar at the SADC secretariat in Gaborone.

President Banda is the current chairman of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.

“The meeting is expected to discuss and agree on the proposed road map for the peace process in Madagascar,” he said.

Mr Jere said SADC chairman Hifikepunye Pohamba, who is also Namibia’s President, will be among the leaders to attend the meeting.

The gathering will also receive a report and proposed roadmap from former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, who is the mediator in the political crisis in Madagascar.

He said President Banda will be accompanied to Botswana by Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande and other senior Government officials.

Mr Jere said the presidential delegation will return to Zambia after completing the scheduled business in Botswana.

Meanwhile, AUBREY MUSUUMBA and JOHN NGOMA report from Gaborone that Zambia’s High Commissioner to Botswana Marina Nsingo says Madagascar has gone through challenging political situations which SADC is attempting to resolve.

Ms Nsingo said in an interview here that it has proved to be difficult in the past to meet all the stakeholders in the Indian ocean island and SADC thought it wise to meet them outside Madagascar.

Madagascar is in a political crisis following an uprising that toppled the democratically elected President Marc Ravalomanana, who is currently exiled in South Africa.

The country is now being managed by a caretaker government, the High Transitional Authority headed by 36-year-old Andry Rajoelina whose government the international community, including SADC, does not recognise.

[Zambia Daily Mail]