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THE PRESIDENCY:Â REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Private Bag X1000, Pretoria, 0001
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLYÂ
QUESTION NO. 886Â
DATE PUBLISHED: 21 August 2009Â
DATE SUBMITTED: 19 October 2009
886. The Leader of the Opposition (DA) to ask the President:
(1)Â Whether, with reference to his reply to Question 8 on 28 July 2009, he
will appeal to SADC to send its own fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe to
investigate the reports about Zimbabwe and the current situation there; if
not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2)Â Whether he will intervene to ensure that President Robert Mugabe abides
by the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to which he attached his signature;
if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3)Â Whether he will impose an embargo on all arms going to Zimbabwe; if
not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?      Â
        NW1037E                          Â
REPLY:
(1) I will not appeal to SADC to send a fact finding mission to Zimbabwe as
the matter was extensively dealt with at the recent Summit of SADC Heads of
State and Government held in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 7-8th
September.
(2) On 27 and 28 August 2009, in my capacity as Chair of SADC, I met in
Harare with the three signatories to the Global Political Agreement (GPA)
to discuss the critical issues relating to the implementation of the
agreement.
On that occasion, I publicly called on all parties in Zimbabwe to work
together to remove any remaining obstacles to the implementation of the
agreement.
The parties agreed on the need to speed up implementation and to find
solutions to the current points of disagreement.
The Democratic Republic of Congo took over as the chair of SADC at the
Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government on 7-8th September.
However, South Africa remains ready to work with its SADC counterparts to
assist Zimbabweâs unity government to resolve any outstanding issues. Â
(3) I will not impose a blanket arms embargo on Zimbabwe. Applications for
sale of arms to another country are considered by the National Conventional
Arms Control Committee (NCACC). This is done on a case-by-case basis, using
the guiding principles and criteria contained in the NCACC Act of 2002.
Among other things, the Committee is required to adhere to international
law, norms and practices and the international obligations and commitments
of the Republic, including United Nations Security Council arms embargoes.