Harare | Monday
FOREIGN ministers from six southern African countries are due in Harare on Monday to audit developments in Zimbabwe’s controversial land reforms, a government representative said on Sunday.
The meeting is a follow-up to a Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit of heads of states held three months ago as part of an international diplomatic offensive to prevent Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis from turning into a regional problem.
Foreign ministers of Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are expected to hold talks at a Harare hotel.
“They will be here from the 11th to the 12th of December. This is a follow up to the heads of states summit of September,” said representative George Charamba.
The September summit agreed to set up a committee of ministers to monitor the situation in Zimbabwe.
Asked about the agenda, the representative said “the agenda is theirs, but they have indicated they want to meet stakeholders.”
Local state media say the ministers are expected to hear from an array of interest groups — including the main opposition party, white farmers, liberation war veterans, church groups, civic bodies, the media and representatives of commerce and industry.
The meeting is to take place after reported calls by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa for a special SADC task team on Zimbabwe to be set up.
South Africa’s Sunday Times last week said that Mbeki’s patience with Harare was “wearing thin” because the Zimbabwe crisis was hampering efforts to launch an economic revival plan for Africa.
Zimbabwe’s turmoil has already had economic effects around the region, scaring off some potential investors.
The crippled economy also means that a major market for regionally produced goods is disappearing, as the price of imports soars with the skyrocketing exchange rate on the parallel market.
In September, Zimbabwe struck a deal with the British government, under which Britain will pay compensation for the acquired farms in the former colony, on condition there is a return to law and order.
At the end of October a Commonwealth team of ministers met in Harare to investigate progress made in the implementation of the agreement with Britain.
The ministers concluded their meeting with a call on the government of President Robert Mugabe to implement the agreement signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja on September 6 and probe reports of rights abuses and violence.
Last week the Supreme Court declared the land reforms were in accordance with the constitution, saying the “land acquisition and redistribution is essentially a matter of social justice and not strictly speaking a legal issue”.
Zimbabwe has been wracked by a land crisis since February 2000, when militant government supporters spearheaded the invasion of white-owned farms to press for their redistribution to landless blacks.
Meanwhile, Moeletsi Mbeki, a leading international affairs expert and brother of South Africa’s president said on Sunday that drastic measures including economic action are necessary to avoid a crisis in Zimbabwe.
The situation in Zimbabwe not act, Mbeki said on public broadcaster SABC’s Newsmaker programme.
“South Africa is the one country that is going to be hurt the most by the Zimbabwe crisis, so it is the country that has to take most of the action,” said Mbeki, who is the deputy chairman of the South African Institute for International Affairs.
Measures against the Harare government of President Robert Mugabe could include “pulling the economic plug” on Zimbabwe, Mbeki told SABC’s Newsmaker programme.
“You know, most of Zimbabwe’s trade goes through South Africa. We must be their biggest trading partner,” Mbeki said.
“So we can stop the Zimbabwean economy tomorrow if we wanted to. We have the muscle,” he said. – AFP