Zimbabwe: Talks Resume in Harare
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8 September 2008
Posted to the web 8 September 2008
Cape Town
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki headed for Harare again on Monday to try to nudge Zimbabwe's deadlocked political parties into a powersharing settlement.
The visit follows in the wake of a reported call by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), for a fresh presidential election if the parties cannot agree.
Parliamentary and presidential elections in March gave the MDC a slight edge over President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF, and the support it needed to take the speakership of Parliament, but not the presidency.
A presidential run-off vote was organised for June but Tsvangirai pulled out of the race after violence against his supporters. The resulting election of Mugabe has little credibility in Africa or elsewhere.
Talks facilitated by Mbeki, appointed to the role by the Southern African Development Community, have since failed to bridge differences between the MDC and Zanu-PF.
Both have agreed to join a unity government, with Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister, but the MDC says the deal on offer does not give Tsvangirai sufficient powers.
Agence France-Presse reports that Tsvangirai told a party rally in Gweru: "If there are continued problems over the presidency, then we go for national elections supervised by the international community."
He said Mugabe should be head of state and he head of government, and added: "If he does not accept that, let it be. We have time on our hands and we have the people on our side... We would rather have no deal than a bad deal."
Announcing Mbeki's visit to Harare, South African foreign ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the president would meet leaders of the Zimbabwean parties and would be supported by members of his facilitation team, who include cabinet minister Sydney Mufamadi and the top civil servant in his office, Frank Chikane.
Read comments. Write your own.
Insteresting post. A lot of fair, logical and rational points. There really is alot of brainwashed, deluded and plain stupid people that believe that Mugabe has the right to govern.
But looks like its too late for change. Mugabe has beaten, murdered and raped his own people to keep power.
And the SADC will do nothing about it. Mbeki is pointless as a mediator and Mugabe will only offer Tsvangarai a token post, which he wont accept.
And at the end of the day, the people of Zimbabwe suffer.
And how do we hope Zimbabwe will heal its self after this? will the new era wipe away the 28 years pain, the massacre of the Ndebele's the recent violence. Those who disagree with Thabo Mbeki as mediator are correct because the mediation talks not need to breaker a truce from these elections they also need to come up with strategies on how to 1. life After Bob 2. The killings that ZANP-PF carried out to keep him in power 3. Economic crisis 4. Diaspora question
Oh Zimbabwe has a long way… [Read Full Text]
Insteresting post. A lot of fair, logical and rational points. There really is alot of brainwashed, deluded and plain stupid people that believe that Mugabe has the right to govern.
But looks like its too late for change. Mugabe has beaten, murdered and raped his own people to keep power.
And the SADC will do nothing about it. Mbeki is pointless as a mediator and Mugabe will only offer Tsvangarai a token post, which he wont accept.
And at the end of the day, the people of Zimbabwe suffer.
Muabe will have to transfer executive power to Tsvangirai. He cannot continue with his illegitimate regime, unless he wants to see the country he helped liberate plunge into complete chaos similar to the neighbouring Congo under Mobutu.
Lunatic Mugabe's maverick stand will earn him an exile like dictator Mobutu whose body is resting outside his motherland. What a fate? Can he realise this worst scenario and grace??fully make way for the person designated by the majority vote?
I am very uncomfortable about the fact that Mugabe still controls the army. To me as long as Mugabe controls the army, he still controls the country and can at anytime ambush Mr Tsvangirai and the police, no matter how well trained, would be helpless against armed soldiers. Anyway we hope it never comes to that.
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allafrica.com should know that Tsvagirai won the March 29 presidential election. The June 27 runoff was a fraud organised as an election. Even without the violence that occurred before that sham June 27 poll, political and constitutional lawyers query its legality. The constitution of Zimbabwe is clear that in the event that no contestant gets more than 50%, the winner is entitled to power and the second best contestant is entitled to a run off within 21 days. What this essentially mean is that when the results were announced on 2nd May, Tsvangirai, the winner should have been allowed… [Read Full Text]