Mbeki to pursue Zim mediation
2008-10-11 08:02
Special Report
A classical music presenter for the BBC has been arrested and is in custody in Zimbabwe.
Johannesburg - Former president Thabo Mbeki will travel to Zimbabwe on Monday to help mediate in the country's deadlock on power sharing, Sapa news agency reported on Friday.
Mbeki, who will be accompanied by three close aides, is to meet Zimbabwe's political leaders with a mandate from the Southern African Development Community regional bloc, Sapa quoted his spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga as saying.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe agreed earlier on Friday to allow in outside mediation in a bid to break the four-week deadlock over Cabinet posts in a new unity government with his political rivals.
After earlier insisting there was no need for Mbeki to resume the troubled mediation mission in Zimbabwe, Mugabe's camp said it now accepted a third party was needed to end the impasse.
Following talks between the opposition and Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front, Zanu-PF's chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa confirmed Mbeki would now be asked for his help.
The agreement by Zanu-PF to call in Mbeki came as something of a surprise after Chinamasa had earlier told a state-run newspaper that there was no need for outside involvement.
"We should learn to overcome our challenges and as negotiating parties we feel that we should not find easy ways to avoid taking hard decisions," he was quoted as saying, adding that was no need to continue "abusing" Mbeki's office.
Key to persuading Mugabe
Since a power-sharing accord was signed on September 15 in the capital Harare, Zanu-PF and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change have met several times in a failed bid to agree on a share of ministries.
The MDC has argued it should take the lion's share of power as it won most votes in a first round of elections in March. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the second round after mounting violence against his supporters.
However the party has accused Zanu-PF of trying to cling onto all the major Cabinent portfolios including defence, home affairs and finance.
Mbeki, who was toppled as South African president last month, has been widely accused in the past of being too soft on Mugabe who has led the former British colony uninterrupted since independence in 1980.
However the MDC, which at one stage called for him to replaced, now sees him as a key to persuading Mugabe and his cohorts to release their grip on power.
Tsvangirai's MDC said in a statement on Friday that Zanu-PF was trying to make it a "bystander" in the new Cabinet.
"Sadly, Zanu-PF ... continues to frustrate that (September 15) agreement by refusing to consummate the same and more importantly by making demands that will reduce the MDC to an innocent and disinterested bystander in that Cabinet," said MDC secretary general Tendai Biti.
- AFP