Zimbabwe will cooperate with South African President Thabo Mbeki’s efforts to mediate between the government and the opposition but would not welcome any ”parallel initiatives”, state media reported on Saturday.
Southern African leaders asked Mbeki in March to mediate between President Robert Mugabe’s government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The request came at a meeting of regional leaders following international criticism of Harare over the arrest and beating of a group of MDC activists, including leader Morgan Tsvangirai, after attempting to hold a prayer rally in the capital.
The state-owned Herald newspaper quoted Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Joey Bimha as saying that Mugabe’s government would cooperate with the Mbeki mediation.
”The government will therefore do its utmost to cooperate with President Mbeki in his efforts to carry out the mandate given to him by SADC [Southern African Development Community] and will thus not entertain any parallel initiatives, wherever they come from,” Bimha said.
Bimha did not elaborate, but he appeared to be referring to recent moves by the Pan African Parliament to embark on a fact-finding mission.
Mbeki told the South African Parliament on Thursday negotiations were proceeding ”very well”, without giving details.
Committed
The MDC remains committed to negotiations with the government despite an intensified crackdown in which many of its members have been arrested or detained, a party official said on Friday.
The MDC says more than 600 opposition supporters have been abducted and tortured by government agents since February. It says 150 activists and leaders, including party president Tsvangirai, have sustained serious injuries.
Mugabe’s government accuses opposition activists of unleashing violence in the townships and engaging in ”terrorist” activities.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said the government was trying to weaken the opposition ahead of general elections next year through the arrest and detention of its key officials, but reported progress in the negotiations being mediated by Mbeki.
”As a party, we fully welcome the initiative and we believe in the process, but our first demand is, you cannot have dialogue and elections in a situation of violence and the attack on the [opposition] party must stop if we’re to have any meaningful discourse,” Biti said.
Biti said the MDC had launched a ”Free Them Now” campaign to press the government to release detained opposition activists.
”We have at least 32 key members currently incarcerated at Harare Remand Prison, facing totally fabricated and trumped-up charges designed to paralyse the party,” Biti said. Among those arrested is the MDC’s elections chief, he said.
”With the elections technically six months away, how do you expect the party to organise its campaign when its elections director is detained? We are institutionally crippled,” Biti said.
The MDC planned to take the Free Them Now campaign to the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights, now sitting in Ghana, and to the Southern African Development Community’s Parliamentary Forum.
He vowed the party would defy Mugabe’s government, which has banned all rallies and protests in central Harare as well as opposition strongholds in the townships.
”If they think they will cow us, they will not. The choice for Mugabe is simple: either you give us freedom or we fill all the prisons with our activists. We are prepared to pay the ultimate price until we get our freedom,” Biti said.
Inflation rockets
On Thursday it was reported that Zimbabwe’s cost of living doubled in a single month in April as annual inflation surged to 3 713,9%, a further sign of economic turmoil in a country where four in five people are jobless.
The Central Statistical Office (CSO) said prices jumped by 100,7% last month after a 50,5% rise in March, when annual inflation had been 2 200,2%.
Raging inflation is the most visible sign of a deep economic crisis which critics say has been worsened by Mugabe’s policies, such as his seizure of white-owned farms to redistribute to black Zimbabweans.
An economic recession has seen unemployment soar to about 80% and sparked shortages of foreign exchange, food and fuel, leaving many Zimbabwean families unable to feed themselves.
The CSO said prices of domestic power, food, fuel and commuter transport fares had contributed to last month’s increase.
The central bank early this year projected the inflation rate would come down to between 300% to 400% but analysts said those projections would not be achieved. The International Monetary Fund had seen inflation accelerating to 3 000% by the end of the year. — Reuters