SW Radio Africa (London)
Tichaona Sibanda
23 October 2009
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Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai arrived in Luanda, Angola on Friday for a meeting with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos about the latest crisis to rock the unity government.
Tsvangirai left Harare on Monday and has met various key leaders in the SADC region. He was in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday for talks with President Joseph Kabila.
Tsvangirai told journalists after his meeting that Kabila, as chairman of the SADC bloc, will visit Harare in the coming days to mediate the current crisis.
'We are here to reaffirm the willingness of the MDC to maintain cohesion and unity within the Zimbabwean government. President Kabila has committed himself to come and share with us the rich experience of the DRC in matters of political transition,' Tsvangirai said.
But the DRC President is a close ally of Robert Mugabe and analysts express serious doubt that anything substantive can be achieved with his help.
In Luanda the Prime Minister was met by his Angolan counterpart, Paulo Kassoma, Foreign Affairs Minister Assuncao dos Anjos and staff from the Zimbabwe embassy. An MDC source told us Tsvangirai's trip has so far yielded good results in that all leaders had voiced concern over the situation prevailing in Zimbabwe, after the MDC disengaged from ZANU PF.
After Angola, Tsvangirai is expected to visit President Ian Khama of Botswana. Khama, one of the few critics of Mugabe in the region, last week said if the unity government in Zimbabwe collapsed Botswana would not recognise a Zanu PF only government or 'certainly not one headed by President Robert Mugabe because he certainly did not win the presidential election last year.'
In Mozambique, President Armando Guebuza promised that he would send a Troika team to assess the situation. But Guebuza is another of the leaders in the region who enjoys very close links Mugabe.
A week ago, Tsvangirai announced a partial withdrawal from the coalition government in protest of more harassment of their Agriculture Minister designate Roy Bennett. A new court order sent him back to jail again on charges of possessing arms for terrorist activities. Bennett denies all the charges and it's generally understood that this is ongoing political harassment.
The shaky inclusive government was formed in February. Although the coalition has led to some improved availability of basic commodities and renewed confidence in the economic performance, not the same can be said about democratic reforms.
In the past few months Tsvangirai has failed to get SADC to discuss his troubled coalition with Mugabe, despite the fact that they are the guarantors of the political agreement.
Tsvangirai vigorously campaigned for Zimbabwe to be placed high on the agenda of the last two SADC summits, arguing that Mugabe was reneging on almost all the commitments he made before the formation of the inclusive government in February. But SADC has generally ignored Tsvangirai and stood firmly by Robert Mugabe.
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