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Mbeki 'still the man for Zim job'
21/04/2008 15:28 - (SA)
Port Louis - Regional leaders want South African President Thabo Mbeki to continue mediating in the Zimbabwe crisis despite opposition calls for him to be replaced, the prime minister of Mauritius says.
Navin Ramgoolam confirmed that a meeting of the Southern African Development Community had asked Mbeki to carry on mediating.
Ramgoolam said: "We have complete faith in President Mbeki. We have renewed our confidence in him by asking him to continue the work of mediation and find a solution to the situation in Zimbabwe."
As president of the leading regional power, Mbeki had come under fire for his muted response to the controversy over the failure by Robert Mugabe's regime to release March 29 presidential election results.
SADC leaders call for release of results
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai last Thursday called for Mbeki to be relieved of his duties as mediator after he had said he saw no crisis in Zimbabwe.
But SADC secretary-general Augusto Salomao said late on Sunday that a summit of the 14-nation regional grouping had heard a report by Mbeki, mandated to the mediation task by the SADC, and "asked him to continue his efforts to find a solution to the situation in Zimbabwe".
The SADC's position on Zimbabwe was discussed Sunday on the margins of the summit on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius on the theme of poverty.
However, no mention was made of Zimbabwe in a final communique.
Earlier this month, SADC leaders called on Zimbabwe to release the delayed results of the presidential election as soon as possible.
Zim situation 'dire'
On Thursday, Tsvangirai said he had made a request to Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, current SADC chairperson, to begin a new mediation effort.
"I made a specific request to President Mwanawasa to say he needs to lead a new initiative, an initiative that will expand beyond that of Mr Mbeki."
Mbeki had been widely taken to task for his failure to publicly criticise his northern neighbour under a policy known as "quiet diplomacy".
Even his own ruling African National Congress party had described the situation in Zimbabwe, where inflation was running at more than 165 000%, as dire.
Tsvangirai reiterated his conviction that he had won the election without any need for a second round run-off against Mugabe.
The parliamentary and presidential elections, held on the same day, had racked up tensions between the opposition and the government in Zimbabwe, which was already gripped by a grave economic crisis.
Electoral authorities had ordered a recount of ballots for the presidential and parliamentary votes cast in 23 out of the country's 210 constituencies - most of them won by the opposition.
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