OWN CORRESPONDENT, AFP, Johannesburg | Sundday
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has conveyed his “deep concern” about the Zimbabwean situation and has urged the leadership to refocus its attention on stabilising the country, according to sources close to the presidency, The Sunday Independent reports.
“In the light of the more recent excesses over the judiciary and foreign correspondents, President Mbeki would have communicated in one way or another his deep concern about the situation,” the newspaper quoted a source as saying.
“The only hope that reasonable and friendly voices within the region have is that Zimbabwe will take this unassuming but firm advice and refocus its attention in the direction of nation-building and development of the economy so as to alleviate the plight of the majority of Zimbabweans,” the source said.
“This approach can only be to the benefit of all Zimbabweans and the citizens of the other southern African nations.”
Meanwhile, the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) said they were not planning on intervening in Zimbabwe, an official said Saturday following a council of ministers meeting in South Africa.
“We do not believe the Zimbabwean situation at this stage calls for exterior intervention by SADC,” said Hidipo Hamutenya, the chairman of the SADC council of ministers.
The regional body might be tempted to intervene if the situation turned violent, as it had in Lesotho, Hamutenya said.
SADC troops from South Africa and Botswana moved into Lesotho in September 1999 to quell political unrest in the tiny mountain country.
“SADC does not assume the responsibility of individual sovereign states to manage their own affairs,” Hamutenya said.
On Saturday, Mugabe vowed that his government would not back down on its controversial land reform programme, saying its white critics “can cry or do whatever.”
“We are forging ahead with the land reforms, there is no going back,” Mugabe told supporters gathered for celebrations to mark his 77th birthday in the country’s northwestern resort town of Victoria Falls.
“Even if we are called names and even if (international) aid is withheld from us, we say what is more important to us is the land, the land to the people,” said Mugabe speaking in the vernacular Shona.
“We, as leaders need your support on this issue, we will not go back, the white men can cry or do whatever, but we will not go backwards,” Mugabe told the cheering crowd.
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