SADC cautions Mugabe
2008-08-29 08:02
Special Report
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's party says the partial lifting of sanctions on members of the veteran ruler’s inner circle is "a non-event".
A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Gaborone - Southern Africa's regional body, in a
thinly-veiled criticism of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, on Thursday urged all parties to power-sharing talks to respect commitments to negotiate a unity government.
"We will be disappointed if the parties renege on their commuitment," Southern African Development Community official Tanki Mothae told AFP in Gaborone, headquarters of the 15-nation bloc.
The parties had agreed at a SADC summit on August 19 "that all Zimbabwe stakeholders should go and sit and finalise all outstanding issues, which will pave the way for establishing a stable and peaceful government", Mothae said.
He was speaking after Mugabe on Wednesday announced his intention to form a new government without the opposition, which said it would not participate in a Cabinet formed before power-sharing talks are concluded.
"All parties concerned must abide by all the agreements," said Mothae, a retired army colonel who heads the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.
Government newspaper The Herald on Wednesday quoted Mugabe as saying: "We shall soon be setting up a government. The MDC (opposition Movement for Democratic Change) does not want to come in apparently."
- AFP