Back to Index

Civic groups after Mbeki's ear
Njabulo Ncube, Financial Gazette
June 13, 2007

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706140909.html

CIVIC society groups, eager to play a role in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) effort to break Zimbabwe's political impasse, have set up a committee of seven organisations to engage South African President Thabo Mbeki over the regional dialogue.

SADC appointed Mbeki in March to mediate in the Zimbabwean crisis. To date, Mbeki has held closed-door discussions with representatives of the ruling ZANU PF and both factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Civic society organisations are now pressing for a role in the process.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) was asked to chair the committee, which has been tasked to arrange a meeting with Mbeki.

Other groups included in the proposed drive are Save Zimbabwe, the Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa (CPIA), the Ecumenical Peace Initiative (EPI), the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ), and the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO).

"The committee will report to civil society from time to time. Most organisations that sent representatives to the meeting stressed that while they agreed to participate in the dialogue process, they would not stop other programmes to open up democratic space, as the government of Zimbabwe was not showing any sign of willingness to open up democratic space in Zimbabwe," the organisations said in a joint statement to The Financial Gazette.

The planning meeting was attended by representatives from Bulawayo Agenda, CPIA, the National Constitutional Assembly, Crisis Coalition, ZESN, NGO Human Rights Forum, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Media Institute of Southern Africa, Zimbabwe National Students Union, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and NANGO.

"The civil society paper shall be presented in due course before President Mbeki's preliminary report to SADC heads of states," reads part of the civic society statement.

Mbeki, who was mandated by SADC to engage ZANU PF and MDC on the nagging crisis in Zimbabwe, appointed a mediation team led by Sydney Mufumadi, South Africa's housing minister.

Frank Chikane, director-general in the Presidency, deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad, and legal advisor Mojanku Gumbi make up the team.

President Robert Mugabe has in turn appointed Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, to be his point men.

Mbeki has indicated that progress will have been made in the mediation effort by the end of this month.

Critics' are, however, sceptical after ZANU PF snubbed a scheduled meeting in Pretoria last month without giving any explanation.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP