Zimbabwe’s government and opposition should sit down and solve their differences, taking a lesson from the way South Africa eased its way out of the apartheid era, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday.
”In the South African case we said that in order to solve the problems of South Africa, South Africans must talk and resolve things among themselves,” Mbeki told reporters. ”That’s what we did.”
”I really do hope that the Zimbabwean leadership will do the same,” he said, during a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations labour agency’s annual meeting.
Mbeki’s hands-off approach isn’t new and coincides with the deafening silence on Zimbabwe’s troubles at this week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa summit.
The summit will steer clear of discussing Zimbabwe; despite widespread concerns over the impact that country’s ongoing political and economic crisis may have on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
Developments in the southern African country featured high on the agenda at last year’s meeting, but this year, summit organisers have left Zimbabwe off the programme.
”There was a conscious decision not to put Zimbabwe on the programme,” Haiko Alfeld, WEF director for Africa said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
He said the WEF had consulted widely within the business community and with groups involved in the mediation process to resolve tensions between President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
It did not feel that putting discussions on Zimbabwe on the summit programme would make a constructive contribution to that process.
However, Alfeld added that Zimbabwe made up the second largest country delegation at the meeting.
As in 2002, the three-day annual WEF gathering is to focus on Nepad, the continent’s bold economic recovery plan that also calls for assistance from the international community.
Observers have warned in the past that a failure to end the turmoil in Zimbabwe could affect perceptions of African leaders’ commitment to good governance and the rule of law.
Zimbabwe’s opposition, which blames Mugabe for the country’s worst political and economic crisis since independence in 1980, has been increasingly vocal in its calls for Zimbabweans to rise against his 23-year rule.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested on Friday on allegations of treason at the close of five days of anti-government strikes and protests organized by his party.
A court in Zimbabwe on Wednesday adjourned after the first day of hearings in which Tsvangirai is trying to get bail while he answers treason charges.
Judge Susan Mavhangira adjourned the case until Thursday at 10am (08:00 GMT) after hearing Tsvangirai’s defence lawyers request bail for their client. The state opposes bail. On Tuesday Tsvangirai was charged with treason and inciting public violence.
He was set to spend his sixth night in police custody on Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning police brought the opposition leader to the Harare High Court dressed in khaki prison garb and wearing handcuffs and leg irons.
The bail hearing was briefly delayed to allow Tsvangirai change into a suit and tie. – Sapa-AP, Sapa, Sapa-AFP