In a day of high drama on the Zimbabwe front, MDC leader Morgan Tsvirangirai snubbed a meeting between him, President Thabo Mbeki and Robert Mugabe - and a British newspaper has posted a film on its website showing voters being forced to vote for Mugabe.
What was anticipated to be a major breakthrough in the Zimbabwean crisis - a face-to-face meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai - collapsed yesterday when the MDC leader failed to arrive.
And a Zimbabwe prison officer used a hidden camera given to him by The Guardian to film how he and his colleagues were forced to vote for Mugabe. The newspaper said in the film and accompanying stories that the officer, Shepherd Yuda, fled Zimbabwe on Friday and was now with his family in an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile Mbeki flew to Harare yesterday after spending the past five days setting up the meeting, which he was to chair. He had secured agreements from Mugabe and Tsvangarai that they would attend what was going to be a first step towards reaching a negotiated political settlement for Zimbabwe.
After arriving in Harare, Mbeki held talks with Mugabe at State House for more than an hour. They then left for Mugabe's office, where the meeting with Tsvangarai was scheduled to take place.
But only Arthur Mutambara, leader of a faction of the MDC which won 10 seats in the March 29 elections, pitched up. When it became clear, after an hour, that Tsvangirai was not coming, there were frantic but unsuccessful efforts to locate him.
Sources said Tsvangirai had snubbed Mbeki's efforts because of his insistence that any mediation from now on should involve the African Union. The AU met last week and expressed deep concern at the Zimbabwean situation.
Mbeki flew back from Harare last night and immediately left for the G-8 meeting in Japan. His failure to secure the face-to-face meeting would be a major blow, as he would have wanted to arrive in Japan, having scored a major political breakthrough.
Sources close to the mediation process have revealed that the meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai could have paved the way for a much broader process aimed at reaching a negotiated settlement. They blamed "non-African" influences - thought to be the British and the Americans - for advising Tsvangirai to snub Mbeki and Mugabe.
"Tsvangirai's failure to pitch up for a meeting he had agreed to is an exercise of extreme political folly," sources said. "He has been saying that he wants to meet Mugabe face to face, but when the opportunity arises, he walks away from it. He may not like Mbeki as a mediator but the South African president has delivered that which Tsvangirai has always insisted he wanted. This is the time for real leadership to come to the fore. That means we should see massive change in the way in which things are being done."
MDC spokesman George Sibotshiswe said his party would not attend any meeting intended to give legitimacy to Mugabe's presidency. "A meeting designed to recognise Mugabe as president will not solve anything. We had no reason to go to a meeting at State House and stand on the lawn while Mbeki is still the sole mediator.
"We are of the view that President Mbeki needs to be assisted and believe that the AU must appoint a permanent mediator to work with him.
"We are also concerned with the timing of the meeting, coming as it did before the G-8 summit. We are concerned that people might have wanted to use the meeting to show the G-8 that progress was being made in Zimbabwe when there is no progress," he said.
These included the violence, toning down the rhetoric on both sides, and making sincere attempts to be part of the solution to Zimbabwe's problems.
The source said both parties should also desist from setting almost impossible preconditions to negotiations. "There can't be issues that are not negotiable."
Mbeki's spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga would not comment on the Tsvangirai snub.
He would only confirm the meeting between Mbeki, Mugabe and Mutambara.
It is understood there will be renewed efforts by a South African team working in Zimbabwe and led by Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi.
Issues identified as key to the negotiated settlement are:
- Who, between Mugabe and Tsvangarai, will lead a government of national unity.
- Powersharing - equitable division of cabinet posts between Zanu-PF and the MDC.
- The lifting of sanctions by the European countries and the United States.
- The release of MDC political prisoners.
- An economic recovery plan.
There have been suggestions that if Mugabe kept the presidency, he would have to sacrifice a Zanu-PF vice president and appoint Tsvangirai.
Another has been that Zanu-PF should be allowed to keep security cabinet posts on condition that MDC deputy ministers are appointed in the portfolios of defence, police and intelligence.
On the other hand, the MDC might be offered economic posts, which would include finance and state-owned enterprises.
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Mbeki, get the African Union Mediator involved to assist in the creation of a transitional government. People don't trust you because you are underlying to the debacle in Zimbabwe. Now you want to be recognized as the hero that can save Zimbabwe. You can't be trusted to lead the mediation because your aim is to make schore political points. You dont believe in fairness, human rights and unity otherwise you would have aggressively worked to safe lives at all cost and have worked on a credible solution to have the 250,000 displaced people settled. We don't want the same situation as Kenya where things are so volatile and corruption of some members of the grand coalition is destroying everyone. In Kenya, the elections were rigged in favor of Kibaki. We need a transitional government with a clear pathway to the restoration of democracy, human rights and the economy. We dont need more of Robert Mugabe; he is stuck in the revolution rhetoric and doesnt know how to recover an economy. The West should go a head and personally impose sanctions on all members of Zanu PF in government and impose travel bans, revoke the student visa's, work visa's in all categories and practical internship for all those aligned to Zanu PF. Mugabe should not address any international meeting of the UN or its affiliates, or no AU meeting and should not be addressed or recognized as President to give him any legitimacy. Let his cohorts of the same Feather Jammeh and Bonga give him political asylum in their countries that are shamefully destitute. You can hide but for so long. No African country will take the risk to accept you in asylum and have you living like a prince with your ugly faced wife in their country when you oppressed and disrupted people's lives for 28 years. Since a certain reader bragged about the highest literacy rate in Zimbabwe and that we should be proud of Mugabe, it has become obvious that this reader with all the big mouth he has doesnt have the ability either to rescue their own country.
You are a very strange african for thinking that sanctions on your fellow brothers will change things in zimbabwe. Tsvangirai has shown that his decisions are definately made elsewhere besides from within Zimbabwe. I am a Zimbabwean and I think people are really tired of all this political mess. We dont care who is involved in the discussion as long as there are discussion to end our suffering. we are not violent people and this calling on the west to impose sanctions on an African country after all the suffering people went through under those same countries is a true embarrasment especially when such calls are made from an african. A mediator will not solve our problems but is there to merely create a platform for dialogue, which is what we want...
The most plausible thought over what is going on in Zimbabwe is that the international community is using sanctions as a means of bringing the authorities in office in Zimbabwe to realise for the sake of the people of Zimbabwe, the need to yield and let democracy proper prevail so that legitimacy returns to Zimbabwe yet again! The events since March 2008 have been ugly and a backward step for Africa as a whole. The best solution for Zimbabwe right now is to call for fresh elections for the Presidency and conduct such elections under a peaciful and quiet atmosphere. The African Union should have observers and a Peace Keeping Force to help with maintaining law and order during the time of such an election call.
The current negotiation plans by Tabo Mbeki will yield nothing tangible as long as Mr Mugabe clings to the Presidency that internationally is rightly viewed as illetimate!
Over 2 million Zimbabweans gave Mr. Mugabe, an African hero, all the legitimacy that he needs on June 27, 2008. And Mr. Mbeki is doing a great job in remaining neutral and trying to help Zimbabweans work out their own problems.
djoser - the SADC as well as AU observer teams disagree with you. Both teams reported that the elections were not free or fair. Where is your legitimacy now?
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