Pahad: Zim stories fabricated
2008-05-20 21:52
Special Report
A new team of SA mediators have held their first talks with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe in a fresh bid to ease tensions within the strained unity government, a report says.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he doesn't expect the US sanctions on his country to be lifted soon.
Pretoria - There was much fabricated information about the situation in Zimbabwe, deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday.
"I wish to express our concern that international media and the SA media is still dealing with Zimbabwe with information...(that) we don't know where it comes from, it's never checked with us.
"There is a lot of fabricated reports that are circulating both in the international media and in the SA media," he told reporters at a briefing at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
An example of the latest reports circulated around the Chinese arms ship which was allegedly destined to drop off arms in Zimbabwe.
"All of these are fabrications, and yet nobody is indicating what is the source of this information. There may be other such fabrications and we believe at this very difficult time for Zimbabweans... there's enough to write about, without putting out absolutely fabricated events in Zimbabwe," he said.
What is the source?
Pahad said reports on the ship, and on relations between President Thabo Mbeki and President Robert Mugabe had "no basis in fact".
"Our concern is that if this is emerging from international reports, why is the SA media not following up as you must do in any situation, to check what is the source?," he asked.
He said that when he returned from China a while ago he had indicated that the ship was returning to China.
He said the reports were not "constructively critical".
SA had not received information about possible threats to Zimbabwean presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai's life.
"As you know Mr Tsvangirai was supposed to return to Zimbwabwe on 17 May, but did not return because of what is being reported in the media that there's security concerns and threats to assassinate him.
"We have not been given this information."
Find a political solution
Pahad said the SADC, of which SA was a member, would continue to enhance its presence in the presidential run-off.
"We as SADC heads determined at the extraordinary summit that our presence will be enhanced to ensure that the conditions for the presidential run-off are as good as it was at the March 29 elections and we will make our contribution to the SADC observer mission.
"We are concerned that the cycle of violence and counter violence (in Zimbabwe) could upset the substantial progress made prior to the 29 March elections."
It was important to find a political solution in Zimbabwe. Judging by reports education and other basic services had deteriorated sharply and inflation was a problem, Pahad said.
- SAPA