Southern African leaders were to gather on Sunday for the final day of a summit overshadowed by Zimbabwe’s crisis, amid a push for a deal between the country’s rivals before the meeting’s end.
At the summit’s opening the previous day, South African President Thabo Mbeki raised the possibility of a settlement before the close of the meeting.
”This summit affords us the possibility to assist the Zimbabwean parties to finalise their negotiations so that together they can engage the work to achieve national healing and reconciliation,” said Mbeki, the mediator for the Zimbabwe talks.
But major sticking points to a settlement were said to remain, and it was unclear whether they could be overcome before leaders from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) left Johannesburg.
Zimbabwe’s crisis overshadowed much of the summit’s first day, with President Robert Mugabe’s participation controversial after his re-election in a June poll widely condemned as a sham.
Mugabe entered the summit with the heads of other Southern African nations, while his arch-rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, took a seat among invited guests.
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, who heads a smaller faction of Zimbabwe’s opposition, were invited to a dinner for the leaders on Saturday evening, a South African government source said.
Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande, speaking at the summit, harshly criticised Mugabe’s re-election in the June poll, calling it a ”blot on the culture of democracy”.
Pande was speaking on behalf of Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who remains hospitalised after suffering a stroke in June. Mwanawasa has previously said it was ”scandalous for SADC to remain silent on Zimbabwe”.
Hundreds protested in a march by regional trade unions, handing over a memorandum to SADC’s executive secretary saying Mugabe ”cannot claim any legitimacy to rule”.
SADC’s troika on security issues agreed late on Friday that a deal to resolve the crisis should be signed during the summit, a foreign minister who attended the meeting said.
”We agreed at the [security] organ that the agreement should be signed within the period of the summit,” said the minister, who declined to be named.
The body includes Angola, Tanzania and Swaziland.
A South African official close to the negotiations said remaining sticking points included whether Mugabe would retain the right to hire and fire ministers and how long a transitional government would remain in place.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change wants a clause stating that if one of the parties pulled out of the government of national unity, elections would be held within 90 days, according to the official.
Power-sharing talks stalled when three days of negotiations adjourned on Tuesday after Tsvangirai said he needed more time to consider a deal agreed by Mugabe and Mutambara.
Mbeki has met the three leaders individually this weekend, said his spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga, who declined to give details of the discussions.
Tsvangirai boycotted the June run-off election despite finishing ahead of Mugabe in the March first round of the vote, citing violence against his supporters that had killed dozens and injured thousands.
The opposition leader believes he has the right to the lion’s share of power based on his first-round total, while the ruling Zanu-PF party argues Mugabe must be recognised as president in any deal, as he won the June election. — Sapa-AFP