Zimbabwe’s bid to re-enter Commonwealth set to highlight North-South divide

Zimbabwe’s controversial application to be re-admitted to the Commonwealth is likely to provoke heated discussion at the organisation’s current summit in Samoa.

However, observers believe that because the issue is so divisive no decision will be made at the meeting and the issue will be kicked down the road.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002 for undemocratic behaviour. In 2003, when the Commonwealth refused to lift the suspension, the then Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, took Zimbabwe out of the organisation.

Mugabe’s successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been trying to secure the readmission of Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth as part of a broader effort to be accepted by the international community.

African countries, particularly fellow members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have supported Zimbabwe. But the bigger Commonwealth member states from the Global North have resisted its readmission.

The Commonwealth comprises 56 nations, most, but not all, former British colonies and is holding its biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa this week.

Commonwealth Secretariat spokesperson Temi Kalejaiye recently told Daily Maverick: “Zimbabwe’s membership process is still under way, and most likely, heads will discuss and consider the progress that has been made in Samoa.

“The informal assessment that the secretary-general undertakes is not a time-bound process but is driven, as with other precedents, by the need for accuracy, thoroughness and context.”

Two key reports

Daily Maverick understands that the decision on Zimbabwe’s readmission might hang on two reports, neither of which has been made public. One is the final report of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to the Zimbabwe elections in August last year. The other is a report on a Commonwealth readmission fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe undertaken in November 2022.

Sources said that outgoing Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland had been sitting on both reports, possibly because neither was favourable to Zimbabwe’s readmission, which she is believed to favour.

In its interim report on the elections, issued last year, the observer mission, headed by former Kenyan Cabinet minister Amina Mohamed, concluded that the voting process was “well conducted and peaceful. However, there exist a number of issues that could impact on the credibility, transparency and inclusivity of the process.”

Read more: Zimbabwe’s attempts to rejoin Commonwealth appear dashed after disputed poll

The report said the mission would elaborate on these issues in its final report, which would be submitted to Scotland. It is not publicly known what it says and until recently Scotland had not shared it with member countries.

However, Daily Maverick was told this week that the report had finally been sent to member state governments which had been given until 26 November to respond to it. That would be after the CHOGM ends, which suggests that this summit will not decide on Zimbabwe’s readmission.

The sources added that Zimbabwe would still be discussed at the traditional Commonwealth leaders’ retreat on Saturday. They noted that “African members (especially SADC) have strong views”.

But other countries, notably Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, are expected to express equally strong opposing views so it is likely that the discussion will be heated and that no decision will be reached.

“How the Commonwealth handles Zimbabwe’s reapplication to the Commonwealth at Samoa and afterwards will be a very important yardstick of adherence to the [Commonwealth] Charter — or caving in to collective African pressure,” Sue Onslow, a visiting professor of political economy at King's College, London told ISS Today last week.

Read more: Commonwealth heads of government meeting is a pivotal moment for Africa’s leadership

The Commonwealth Charter demands adherence by its member states to the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. It now looks as though handling Zimbabwe’s readmission application will be left to Scotland’s successor.

After the maximum two terms in the job, Scotland is standing down after the CHOGM, which will elect a new secretary-general. Three African candidates are competing to succeed her: Ghana’s foreign minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey; Lesotho’s former trade and industry minister Joshua Phoho Setipa; and Gambia’s foreign minister, Mamadou Tangara.

South Africa, like most, if not all, other African members favours Zimbabwe’s readmission, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has said.

South Africa has sent a low-level delegation to the CHOGM, led by Lamola’s deputy, Thandi Moraka. Lamola told Daily Maverick recently that Deputy President Paul Mashatile would head the delegation, but his office told us on Wednesday that he couldn’t make it because of logistics and responsibilities he had to attend to in SA.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Lamola are attending the BRICS summit this week in Kazan, Russia. DM