Financial Gazette (Harare)
Njabulo Ncube
8 May 2008
Harare — EMBATTLED South African President Thabo Mbeki on Monday dispatched a high-powered delegation to Zimbabwe to look into allegations of rampant violence in the rural areas.
The visit to Harare since Monday night by President Mbeki's team - led by his local government minister Sydney Mufumadi - came amid revelations Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party last Thursday wrote to the South African leader informing him that they were seriously considering severing ties with him as the Southern African Development Community (SADC)-appointed mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis.
SADC observers are expected to arrive in Harare on Sunday to investigate allegations of violence in the country as the opposition yesterday claimed the death toll of its supporters had risen to 24.
Information obtained by The Financial Gazette indicates Mufumadi on Tuesday held closed-door discussions with President Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairman George Chiweshe.
While details of the deliberations were not immediately available The Financial Gazette is reliably informed the discussions focused on the disputed March 29 elections and the violence that has ensued.
Yesterday the Mbeki team met leaders of the MDC who sources said complained about violence against their supporters, especially in the rural areas previously considered President Mugabe's strongholds.
The MDC, which ZANU-PF counter accuses of fomenting the violence, is said to have produced dossiers implicating ZANU-PF supporters, militias and state security agents in the orgy of terror and turmoil sweeping the countryside.
The MDC, according to insiders who attended the meeting with Mbeki's team, categorically stated that the ZEC had discredited itself and had shown that it has no capacity to organize a run-off.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the Tsvangirai camp of the MDC confirmed his party met with the South African team, which has been involved in the SADC mediation process in Zimbabwe for nearly a year.
"I can't go into specifics," said Chamisa, declining also to elaborate on the letter the MDC is said to have sent to Mbeki over its displeasure regarding the manner in which he has handled the mediation.
But The Financial Gazette was shown part of the letter written to Mbeki last Thursday, which informs the South African leader of the MDC's decision to cut all ties with him.
According to the letter, the MDC accuses Mbeki of aiding and abetting President Mugabe and being part of the ZANU-PF strategic committee allegedly advocating resistance to Western and international interference in the resolution of the crisis.
Among the MDC's other major complaints is an accusation that Mbeki has been complicity in dividing the opposition by holding secret meetings with the breakaway faction led by Arthur Mutambara.
In the letter Mbeki is further blamed for allegedly failing to act against President Mugabe when the Zimbabwean leader announced the date of the harmonized elections on January 25, 2008, "without consulting and failing to reprimand (President) Mugabe over Section 48 allowing police inside polling stations during the March 29, 2008 elections."
Yesterday, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono called for a mutually binding pact over the presidential run-off to avoid post-election bickering on the outcome.
No presidential candidate garnered the required 50.1 percent required for the ZEC to declare a winner.
Gono expressed fears that the absence of a pre-poll agreement could trigger a sharp meltdown of the beleaguered economy.
"We fear that post the run-off, there may be no Zimbabwean economy to talk about, and in that eventuality, the pursuit of democracy will have dealt an unjust blow to the ordinary Zimbabweans who will find themselves sunk much deeper in the then inextricable socio-economic hardships," Gono said.
He said there was no room in Zimbabwe, given the bad state of the economy, for "bickering in disruptive ventures for political expediency".
It was his strong view that the signing of such an agreement would help promote the predictability of the possible environment to prevail in the country in the post election period.
"Such predictability has invaluable merit in that it will allow individuals and corporates to get on with the job of making productive business decisions in the interest of the economy," said the RBZ governor.
The pact, whose details are matters for negotiation by the contestants, should itself be thoroughly communicated to the electorate, so as to anchor restrained behaviour and maturity in the post run-off period, the RBZ chief said.
He added that Zimbabweans should therefore "work in unity to foreclose any possibility of tearing each other apart in the lead up to, during, and after the run-off polls".
"Zimbabweans must rise above sectoral interests and converge their minds on the basic principles of justice and democracy," Gono added.
He said while there could be differences in ideologies among Zimbabweans these differences should not be allowed to divide the country and influence the escalation of tensions in the country.
Gono said the political parties should recognise that democratic processes must find meaning by leading to the achievement of socio-economic goals in ways that are efficient and consistent with justice through the advancement of the nation's welfare.
"One wishes that there was a way or legal instruments through which an amicable, more progressive path could be established between the two parties, without having to subject the nation and the economy to further delays in the resolution of the political question," said Gono
"Zimbabwe is currently facing formidable socio-economic setbacks whose resolution cannot be postponed any further. As we are experiencing (electoral delays), electoral processes can be long and winding, but in our case, the proverbial grass that is suffering is the economy."
"Like my advice given to the nation at the start of the price blitz and price wars at the beginning of July last year, good and noble intentions do not always result in intended outcomes," Gono said.
He said at no other time had it been clearer that the Zimbabwean economy's state could not be divorced from the unfolding political dynamics in the country.
The RBZ governor objected to accusations by some politicians and the public that his economic policies had led to the current economic crisis.
Analysts however, said while Gono had offered sound advice to the nation, it was an uphill task to get the country's two main political parties to the table because of their deep-rooted antagonism.
Since last year, Thabo Mbeki has been shuttling between Harare and Pretoria in a desperate effort to salvage a resolution to the country's political and economic crisis.
But, to date, his efforts have been futile.
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