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Mbeki pushes ahead with talks
18/07/2008 21:05 - (SA)
Pretoria - Under-fire SA President Thabo Mbeki pushed ahead with efforts to broker an end to Zimbabwe's crisis on Friday, hosting talks with the AU's top official and a UN troubleshooter.
Mbeki, heavily-criticised over his policy of quiet diplomacy towards his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe, was locked in talks with AU Commission chairperson Jean Ping at his office in Pretoria after a similar session with the UN special representative to Zimbabwe, Haile Menkerios.
The closed-door talks were being held ahead of a gathering of foreign ministers in the city of Durban, where Zimbabwe's post-election violence and efforts to bring about some kind of power-sharing deal were to top the agenda.
While Mbeki posed with Menkerios and then Ping at the start of their meetings, he was tight-lipped on what they would discuss.
While little fanfare has surrounded the get-together, it is the first between Ping and Mbeki since Mugabe's re-election in a one-man poll on June 27.
Mbeki has been trying to mediate between the opposition and Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party but, having made little headway so far, has faced calls to be either axed from his role or at least to begin working in tandem with the AU.
"The MDC has made it clear an expanded (mediation) team provides the best opportunity for a negotiated solution to the Zimbabwe crisis," a source close to Tsvangirai told AFP.
"The situation in Zimbabwe is deteriorating on a daily basis and it is essential for the people's welfare that a transitional agreement is reached as soon as possible and we hope the outcome of today's consultations will facilitate this."
Fake argument
The MDC and Zanu-PF began preliminary talks last week aimed at establishing a framework for substantive negotiations.
Tsvangirai has so far refused to put his name to a framework deal - although his aides have hinted he will be ready to sign after the Ping-Mbeki talks.
Mbeki was tasked more than a year ago by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) to mediate between the MDC and Zanu-PF, and was asked to push ahead with his efforts at a summit in April.
His Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was to give an update on the mediation efforts at Friday's meeting in Durban, with the SA government insistent that a resolution to the Zimbabwe crisis remain the sole preserve of SADC.
"Our view has always been, and I am stressing it, we are being diverted by a fake argument about the expansion of the SADC facilitation," Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters earlier this week.
"I don't believe that at this very crucial moment, adding new bodies, simply to sit in the same room, is what is required," he added.
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
