Source: Zim to chair human rights committee | The Herald
Conrad Mupesa–Mashonaland West Bureau
ZIMBABWE has been endorsed to chair the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum’s Democratisation, Governance and Human Rights committee.
Lesotho will deputise Zimbabwe in a two-year tenure that started on May 1.
The development helps to discredit the West and local opposition parties’ uncalled for stance on Zimbabwe and human rights.
Various Western countries imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe and have kept condemning the Government for unfounded human rights abuses.
America has, on the other hand, accused Zimbabwean government for failing to give its citizens their democratic rights, an assertion which has been exposed by SADC countries.
Hurungwe Central Member of Parliament, Mr Dought Ndiweni, who will be chairing the committee on behalf of Zimbabwe confirmed the development.
“Zimbabwe was voted to chair the committee on Democratisation, Governance and Human Rights for the next two years,” he said. “This is the committee that oversees and observes elections in the SADC region and beyond.
“We were voted unanimously by all the nations and we had strong backing from Mozambique and South Africa.”
Zimbabwe has never chaired the committee since its inception in 1999.
“We have only held the vice chairman post in 1999-2000, 2002-2004 and 2014-2016,” said Mr Ndiweni.
SADC is made up of Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.