But Zimbabwe’s in the chair.

It clear even before the leaders gather for their deliberations that hosts are not calling the shots.

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation invited journalists to the opening of the African Foreign Ministers retreat in Sandton today.

But Zimbabwe’s foreign affairs chief Samuel Mumbengegwi was clearly having none of it.

Embarrassed South African and African Union officials had to herd the media out of the meeting he presided over.

Two days ago, media were invited to report on the opening of the ambassadors’meeting Pretoria.

The Zimbabwe envoy took the chair there and reporters were kept out.

President Robert Mugabe, who was elected chair of the African Union summit for the year of 2015, will be the man in charge when heads of state gather on Sunday.

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They’ve taken only one official each into their retreat at the Sandton Convention Centre so that deliberations can be kept as private as possible.

So concerned are African foreign ministers about the confidentiality of their meeting that the media, invited to cover opening remarks, was unceremoniously booted out without so much as a soundbite.

They start their formal meeting tomorrow which will presumably be kicked off with a little fanfare.

But for today they have to decide which of the tricky issues raised by their ambassadors to the African Union in two days of meetings in Pretoria they dare put on the agenda for their heads of state and government at the summit on Sunday.

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