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ANC
turns up volume of 'quiet diplomacy'
Business
Day (SA)
January 18, 2005
SA's ruling party
takes harder line on Mugabe's heavy hand towards rivals
The African National
Congress (ANC) stepped up the pressure on the Zimbabwean government yesterday,
warning that its treatment of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) was not conducive to a free and fair election in March. The comments
by ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe were among the strongest to date
by a senior official from the ANC, which has been reluctant to publicly
criticise the government of President Robert Mugabe. After the annual "lekgotla"
of the ANC's national executive committee, Motlanthe unusually delved into
specific criticism of the political climate in Zimbabwe ahead of the parliamentary
elections, including its concern that the MDC was still required to obtain
permission from police to hold public meetings. "We have been concerned
about several things.
The MDC is a party
that participates in parliament and it controls several municipalities.
This position impairs its ability to interact with its constituencies.
It is an anomaly." The ANC was continuously engaging the ruling Zanu PF
on the issue. "Over the years we have been saying to them that you cannot
have a properly registered party restricted in this way. Indeed, the playing
field should be levelled and the police should act in an impartial manner."
The MDC should also be given access to state-owned media institutions,
Motlanthe said. He was pleased by the commitment both parties had made
to electoral guidelines laid out by the Southern African Development Community
(SADC), and the ANC was "nudging Zanu PF that the outcome of the election
must be beyond questioning by anyone".
This is first time
the ANC has publicly declared that it has been putting pressure on Zanu
PF to strictly adhere to the SADC election protocol. Political analyst
Shadrack Gutto said this indicated some confidence on the ANC's part that
it would do so, but Zanu PF's undertaking would carry much more weight
if it had been made to the appropriate structures of SADC and the African
Union, which were in a position to give legitimacy to the election. The
MDC's secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, said he was suspicious of the
Zanu PF undertaking as it had in the past made promises to appease its
political friends while continuing to intimidate opposition members. The
MDC would particularly like to see changes in the behaviour of the Zimbabwean
police, which had refused him (Ncube) the right to address two public
meeting at the weekend. While Zimbabwe has not yet appointed an independent
electoral commission, it had nonetheless proceeded to publish the voters'
roll and called on citizens to inspect their names.
This was a violation
of the functions of the commission, whose duty it would be to certify
the voters roll. Gutto said if Mugabe implemented the SADC protocol in
the March poll, government's policy of "quiet diplomacy" would have finally
prevailed. President Thabo Mbeki has risked criticism by continuing to
talk to the Zimbabwean government amid international condemnation. Zanu
PF's publicity secretary in Johannesburg, Gadzira Chirumhanzu, defended
the requirement that the MDC receive written permission for public meetings.
He said instead of criticising the police , the MDC should plan its meetings
in advance and submit their schedules.
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