Mauritian PM left for Namibia to attend the Southern African Development Community summit

Prime Minister Dr Navin Ramgoolam left for Namibia on Thursday to attend the Southern African Development Community (SADC) extraordinary summit, which will be held on Friday.

A press release from the Prime Minister’s Office states that preparations are also underway for SADC, COMESA, and the East African Community (EAC) to discuss a free-trade agreement.

However, it is likely that the discussion on free-trade may be deferred to June at a special summit in South Africa.

At the 30th summit held in August last year, the Prime Minister had received sympathetic responses from member states on the Mauritian dispute with UK over the proposed marine park around Chagos which the British government wants to establish.

Mauritius has been promised full support by SADC at the next United Nations Assembly. Confusion surrounds the summit.

In a telephone conversation, Catherine Sasman of The Namibian confirmed from Windhoek that there is concern as SADC may or may not deliberate on the situation in Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

However, a Zimbabwe online site has confirmed reports that the Zimbabwe crisis was struck off the agenda at the request of South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday night.

Zuma, who is SADC mediator and facilitator on the Zimbabwean crisis, is said to have offered to host a special summit in Pretoria either on June 11 or 20.