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Mbeki, Mugabe on collision course
Augustine Mukaro, Zimbabwe Independent
July 20, 2007

http://allafrica.com/stories/200707200654.html

President Robert Mugabe and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki are set on a collision course at the Sadc meeting in Zambia next month following the collapse of inter-party talks between Zanu PF and the MDC aimed at resolving the Zimbabwean crisis.

Mbeki, who has postponed direct talks on several occasions after the Zanu PF negotiating team failed to turn up in at the venue in Pretoria, has nothing tangible for Sadc leaders who selected him to facilitate talks between the two parties at a summit in Dar es Salaam in March.

The next Sadc meeting is in Zambia on August 12. The flimsy excuses given by Zanu PF for failure to attend the talks have raised suspicion that Mugabe could have snubbed the Sadc initiative in the face of a self-destructing opposition. The two MDC formations are represented by their secretary-generals, lawyers Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti.

Zanu PF key negotiators, Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa and Labour minister Nicholas Goche, again did not turn up for negotiations scheduled to resume in Pretoria last week.

However, South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the Zanu PF team had last week failed to attend the talks because of "prior commitments". He said the delegation had apologised to the South African government.

Mamoepa denied claims that the talks had collapsed. Mbeki himself recently reported "progress" in the mediation effort.

The process is being conducted under a media blackout.

Sources said Mugabe was unhappy that Mbeki appears sympathetic to calls for a new constitution before Zimbabwe's first joint parliamentary and presidential elections next year and the proposal for a reformed-minded Zanu PF. The reformed Zanu PF is understood to be focusing at a post Mugabe-era.

Observers said Mugabe did not believe in the Sadc initiative launched following an international outcry after MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai was beaten up by police on March 11 for defying a government ban on public meetings.

On the same day the Zanu PF delegation was expected in Pretoria, Mugabe told a party national consultative assembly meeting that the current constitution was serving the government well.

The MDC and civic society organisations are opposed to piece-meal amendments to the constitution and want an overhaul to level the playing field. The MDC has made the new constitution one of its key demands at the proposed talks with Zanu PF in South Africa.

Top Zanu PF officials this week said the ruling party was buying time while waiting for Constitutional Amendment 18 to pass through the necessary framework before officially pulling out of the negotiations.

An indication of the gravity of the Zimbabwean crisis was when South African Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma recently conceded for the first time that she was "concerned" about the economic situation "which is deteriorating over time". She also warned that efforts to rebuild the country's economy would be hampered by polarisation and division.

MDC Tsvangirai faction spokesman Nelson Chamisa referred questions on the matter to Biti. Mutambara faction spokesman Gabriel Chaibva said as long as there were no substantial breakthroughs "we will not comment to avoid predetermining the direction of the initiative".

However, sources said although Zanu PF had submitted its position paper, it was reluctant to transform it into fully fledged negotiations.

Under the Sadc initiative Mbeki was expected to bring to the negotiation table Zanu PF and MDC and map out a solution to the political and economic crisis the country. Mbeki was also tasked to ensure that Zimbabwe holds free and fair elections.

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