Political Correspondent<\/p>\n\n\n\n
United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA) president Elisabeth Valerio has condemned opposition parties for attending the recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit, accusing them of legitimizing a false image of democracy in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Opposition parties present at the summit were there to sanitize the facade of a matured democracy, yet we all know the reality. We must hold our national leaders to account,” Valerio said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valerio questioned the significance of Zimbabwe’s assumption of the SADC Chairmanship, calling it a routine rotation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s not an extraordinary achievement, therefore, the excess celebration and national expenditures incurred are unnecessary.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She emphasized that tangible improvements for Zimbabweans are what truly matter, not the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If we are to expect anything positive from holding the SADC Chairmanship, it should first be reflected in tangible improvements within our borders. Sadly, reality is far from this.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valerio also highlighted the failure of the Zimbabwean government to adhere to SADC protocols and guidelines on governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Instead of celebrating a title, we should be focusing on ensuring that these commitments are fulfilled.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her comments come as opposition leaders attended the SADC summit amid ongoing crackdowns on activists and human rights defenders in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zim GBC News\u00a92024<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Political Correspondent United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA) president Elisabeth Valerio has condemned opposition parties for attending the recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit, accusing them of legitimizing a false image… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3881,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions\/3881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}