written as it is on colourful glossy paper that it is hard to get. Distribution is poor. This contrasts sharply with the approach of ZANU PF manifested by Kwaedza, a cheaply printed and widely distributed paper written in the vernacular. While the MDC faces publishing constraints due to the continued existence of repressive media laws, the NCA for example circumvented this problem by handing out simple cheap and informative flyers at all bus termini to get their message out. The MDC could also deliver a weekly prime Minister’s Address to the Nation to ZTV. While they will of course refuse to broadcast it, an important point will be made. One result of its failure to adopt an effective media strategy is that the MDC is losing touch with its constituency. Having entered into the government they have been silenced as a voice opposed to ZANU PF while ZANU PF remains extremely vocal, including as a voice opposed to the MDC. From SADC to the People The group agreed that the MDC should place no reliance on SADC. While this strategy was initially justified in the sense that the MDC faced criticism in relying on international fora seen as western rather than African, it is clear that SADC is hopelessly compromised. It was suggested that the SADC leaders have absorbed Mugabe’s propaganda that Tsvangirai is a western puppet. Furthermore, these leaders fear that the ascension of Tsvangirai would serve as an uncomfortable precedent which would stimulate similar events to those in Zimbabwe in their own countries2. The MDC’s policy of not criticising ZANU PF’s behaviour in regard to the IG, claiming that the IG is working and doing a tour of the West calling for sanctions to be lifted, has made things easy for SADC. The MDC could hardly cry foul when the September SADC summit in Kinshasa simply repeated what the MDC had publicly stated. Rather than seeking to ingratiate itself with SADC, the MDC should be putting it under pressure, demanding for example that it take a stand on Mugabe’s defiance of the decisions of the SADC tribunal, and pointing out the implications of SADC’s failure to value or respect its own institutions. The personality cult around Mugabe within ZANU PF is being replicated around Morgan Tsvangirai within the MDC, with a tendency to think that the “supreme” leader will resolve matters by talking to those he deems important such as SADC. Yet pressure needs to come from grassroots, civil society, and religious groups. The MDC’s grassroots support theoretically is represented in parliament. Yet neither the MDC nor ZANU PF MPs are listening to their constituencies. And the MDC is not using the power it has in parliament, which rarely sits, or attempting to use the committee system to put pressure on the executive. This modus operandi has been taken up by the civics and others who tend to by-pass parliament and approach the executive for redress of complaints and to attend to issues. A people based approach needs to be reinvigorated. The people gave the MDC its mandate and the MDC should be looking to the people rather than SADC for support. SADC has deliberately suppressed the March 2008 election result through the GPA. There is thus an urgent need for the MDC to remobilise and energise its activists. This will not be achieved without alternative voices. In this regard, rather than solely focusing on SADC, the MDC should turn its attention to other political parties within the region. Lobbying should take place on a party to party level, rather than a government to government level or worse still party to government level. If the MDC were, for example, to successfully lobby the ANC, the effect on the Zuma led government would be profound 2 Again it should be noted that there have been a number of developments since this round table was convened, and hence some comments are necessarily historical. 6