Zuma: West slowing Zim efforts

2008-01-24 21:12

Davos - Jacob Zuma said on Thursday that US and European interference was hindering efforts to reconcile Zimbabwe's opposition with President Robert Mugabe's government.

"The US and Europeans tell us what we need to do and tell Mugabe," Zuma said on the sidelines of the annual gathering of business and political leaders in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

"That undermines our efforts," he said, adding that the issue contained "an element of racism".

President Thabo Mbeki was tasked by fellow leaders of the Southern African Development Community last March with mediating between the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) and the leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

"Nobody is doing more to help the situation in Zimbabwe than South Africa," said Zuma, who ousted Mbeki from the helm of the ANC in a bitter leadership contest last month.

As head of the party, he is the automatic frontrunner to succeed Mbeki as president in 2009 despite the prospect of a corruption trial in August.

"I'm not sure I will do anything fundamentally different," he said, when asked if he would change Pretoria's policy on Zimbabwe if he becomes president.

"Maybe it would be a question of style," he added.

Zimbabwe, led by the 83-year-old Mugabe since independence in 1980, is in economic meltdown. The official annual rate of inflation is put at 8%000%, but economists believe it to be nearer 50 000%.

Unemployment is running at around 80% while basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil and sugar are now a scarce commodity in the one-time regional breadbasket.

- SAPA