Pretoria | Sunday
SANCTIONS against Zimbabwe have had little or no effect and are not a viable way to effect change in that country, President Thabo Mbeki’s spokesman said on Saturday.
Bheki Khumalo said some countries had followed a policy of “loud diplomacy” — openly criticising the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — and have had to retreat from that position.
He did not name the countries.
“The only way to go is through continued engagement with the Zimbabwean government,” Khumalo was quoted by the South African news agency SAPA as saying.
“The only way to go is through continued engagement with the Zimbabwean government… ” Khumalo was reacting to an appeal by Tony Leon, leader of the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), for strict sanctions to be imposed against Zimbabwe at the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which starts in Malawi on Sunday.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Leon said violence in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe, had exposed the “hopeless inadequacy” of the government’s “quiet diplomacy” policy towards Zimbabwe’s government.
“The confusion and obfuscation that still characterises President Mbeki’s policy towards the Zimbabwe government is both dangerous and unacceptable,” Leon said.
Some 30 white farmers have fled their homes around Chinhoyi, in northern Zimbabwe, after talks with government Friday yielded no sign of an end to the wave of violence that has hit the region all week. – AFP