SADC cautions Mugabe
2008-08-29 08:02
Special Report
A judge says allegations the main witness was tortured can be raised in Roy Bennett's trial that has shaken Zimbabwe's coalition government.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he doesn't expect the US sanctions on his country to be lifted soon.
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