in a further effort to bring peace to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.
Presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana would not comment on the nature of the talks, saying only that they were “confidential”.
Mandela is expected to meet Congolese Democratic Coalition chairman Ernest Wamba dia Wamba in Pretoria next week.
On Monday he held the first in a series of talks aimed at ending the conflict with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni. He has also spoken to former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere by phone and is believed to have sent a representative earlier to speak to Libyan president Muamar Gadaffi.
Mandela will meet Namibian president Sam Nujoma in Windhoek on Wednesday, following the Southern African development Community Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs meeting in Lusaka on Monday.
Meanwhile a spokesperson for Museveni says he has been completely taken aback by Zimbabwe’s announcement of an offensive in east Democratic Republic of Congo.
The official explained that the announcement of an escalation of the DRC war pre-empted Monday’s SADC meeting in Lusaka.
“[Museveni] was amazed that [Zimbabwean President Robert] Mugabe had acted in this way because he thought they had agreed to wait until October 25 for [the SADC meeting] in Zambia before making a decision,” the official said.
In the DRC itself, president Laurent Kabila and his allies have announced that they are planning a “large-scale offensive on the Inga hydro-electric power plant” south-west of Kinshasa, according to Radio Goma, which asserts that the rebels are still in control of the dam.Goma is the rebels’ eastern stronghold, and the radio is controlled by them.
The radio accused Kabila of deploying 7000
Rwandan Hutu militiamen at Mbuji-Maya, led by Major-General Augustin Bizimungu, commander-in-chief of the Rwandan army during the 1994 genocide.
The rebels also said Kabila has deployed 10 fighter aircraft and three helicopters as reinforcements at Mbuji-Maya. — AFP