The South African government said on Monday it had no prior knowledge of a plan in terms of which Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe would resign and be replaced by a coalition government.
Reacting to news that Zimbabwe’s opposition party denied being involved in the plan, foreign affairs representative Ronnie Mamoepa said the South African government stood by its earlier statement that it was ”not at all aware” of the reported offer.
”We categorically state that South Africa is not involved in the reported Zimbabwe deal. We are not aware of the deal at all,” Mamoepa said.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Monday that media reports that suggested it was party to an exit package for Mugabe were false.
”The MDC position is that talks that were facilitated by South African and Nigerian presidents Thabo Mbeki and Olesagun Obasanjo collapsed at the behest of Zanu-PF. Since then the party’s national council decided that talks with Zanu-PF were closed.
No further such negotiations can ever take place without a fresh mandate from the party’s national council,” said the MDC’s representative Paul Themba Nyathi.
AFP reports that Zanu-PF dismissed as ”wishful thinking and mischief” media reports that senior party officials were hatching the exit plan for Robert Mugabe. – Sapa