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Zim reports 'misleading'
12/07/2007 10:25 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Media reports that Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma called for new intervention by the SA Development Community (SADC) in Zimbabwe were misleading, her department said on Thursday.
"Nothing is further from the truth," said spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
"Rather than calling for a new SADC initiative on Zimbabwe, Minister Dlamini-Zuma was reiterating the decision of the SADC Summit held in Tanzania in March this year."
This had mandated President Thabo Mbeki to mediate between Zanu-PF and opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, and mandated the SADC executive secretary to look into the country's economic situation.
Media reports said Dlamini-Zuma had told reporters in Pretoria this week that SADC should step in to save the deteriorating Zimbabwean situation.
Mamoepa said Dlamini-Zuma had expressed concern about the country's general situation, including its deteriorating economic situation.
"...It is in part, for the reason that SADC has decided that there must be some discussion and reconciliation because it is very difficult to rebuild an economy in a country where there is a serious divide and polarisation," he quoted Dlamini-Zuma as having said.
The minister was speaking to reporters after talks with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema.
"The suggestion that Minister Dlamini-Zuma called for SADC to intervene in Zimbabwe is erroneous and misleading," said Mamoepa.
"Minister Dlamini-Zuma has confidence in the current SADC initiative on Zimbabwe."
In April, Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad said the SADC executive secretary of SADC was tasked to undertake a study on the country's deteriorating economic situation by an extraordinary SADC summit in March.
"The SADC economic rescue initiative is aimed at assisting the government of Zimbabwe to revive itself from the current economic challenges," he said.
Meanwhile, weekend reports said SADC was putting together a plan to peg the rand to the Zimbabwe dollar by extending the multilateral monetary area of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland to Zimbabwe.
The SADC secretariat rejected the reports, Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald reported.
"SADC disassociates itself from any reported support packages as they did not originate from its secretariat," said the secretariat.
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