SW Radio Africa (London)
Lance Guma
7 November 2008
Zimbabwe's political rivals will be under pressure from both civil society groups and regional leaders Sunday, to put aside their differences and form a new government.
Activists from several pressure groups based in South Africa will demonstrate at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg insisting, 'this should be the last summit on Zimbabwe.' John Vincent Chikwari, the Secretary General of the Revolutionary Youth Movement of Zimbabwe, told Newsreel they would demand that ZANU PF show more sincerity towards the MDC.
The group also blamed Mugabe's regime for not owning up to the massive humanitarian crisis and said NGO's should be allowed to do their work unhindered. Sunday's protests will join together members from the National Constitutional Assembly, Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe SA Chapter, Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum, MDC Activists Association and the Revolutionary Youth Movement, amongst others. Chikwari said Zimbabweans are looking for solutions to the problems affecting the economy, education, health, plus the dire humanitarian situation. In the absence of an inclusive government the crisis is expected to continue.
But all signs point to another deadlock at the summit. The MDC expressed concern at increasing incidents of violence and the abduction and arrest of several of their members. Around 25 MDC supporters were brutally attacked in Epworth and 5 of them had to be hospitalized at the end of October. A few days later state security agents in Banket raided the homes of the MDC leadership there and arrested 9 MDC members, including a two year-old girl. The whereabouts of those abducted are still not known. The party feels their rivals ZANU PF have all but 'buried the talks' with this sort of behaviour.
To deflect attention from the state sponsored violence, ZANU PF meanwhile accused Botswana of training MDC youths to come and destabilize the country. Zimbabwe made the charges at an extraordinary meeting of regional security ministers in Mozambique on Wednesday. The accusations followed a call by Botswana's President Ian Khama for a re-run of the presidential election, as another way of breaking the impasse. ZANU PF responded angrily accusing Botswana of 'extreme provocation.' On Friday Botswana government spokesman Jeff Ramsey dismissed the accusations as 'baseless' and challenged the Zimbabwean government to provide evidence.
While protesting civil society groups exert their own pressure at the conference centre, South Africa also talked tough on Thursday. Government spokesman Themba Maseko said; 'The region cannot be held to ransom by parties who are failing to reach agreement on the allocation of cabinet posts. This is becoming a matter of extreme concern for us and we will be taking quite a hard stance to make sure that agreement is reached.'
Analysts predict the MDC will not make any concessions regarding control of the Home Affairs Ministry and any progress would have to rely on Mugabe being reasonable for once. Unfortunately the ZANU PF leader appears more interested in holding onto power and in protecting the security chiefs who secured his violent re-election.
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