Zimbabwe’s opposition party on Tuesday rejected President Robert Mugabe’s demand that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) recognise him as the legitimately elected president before he engages in talks to try to resolve the country’s crisis.
The MDC also warned that the stalled negotiations and the international shuttle diplomacy begun by three African presidents in Harare on Monday would not stop the party’s planned campaign of ”mass action” against Mugabe.
”When Mugabe talks about recognising him, that’s a pre-condition,” said MDC representative Paul Themba Nyathi. ”There is no way we are going to consider that.”
He expected international and regional attempts to bring the two parties together would continue, but added: ”That doesn’t stop us as a party exerting our own pressure.”
He was referring to the MDC’s plans for ”people’s power” demonstrations to force Mugabe to step down.
Mugabe (79) poured cold water on Monday on widespread expectations that South African President Thabo Mbeki, Malawian President Bakili Muluzi and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo would be able to bring the two parties to the negotiating table.
After more than two hours of talks with the three leaders, Mugabe said he was willing to talk with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but only if the MDC withdrew its court challenge to the results of the controversial presidential election that declared him the winner last year.
Most Western governments, the Commonwealth and the parliamentary observer group of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the 13-nation regional economic bloc, said Mugabe’s victory in the poll in March last year was the result of violent intimidation by his ruling Zanu-PF party and rigging of the voting procedures and results by the government.
Soon after the election, the MDC lodged an application in the high court for the result to be overturned.
Mbeki and Obasanjo persuaded the MDC and Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party to open talks immediately after the election, but they were abandoned after five weeks by Zanu-PF when the MDC lodged its court petition.
”I am the president of the country, I have legitimacy which the MDC doesn’t recognise,” Mugabe said on Monday.
”Does the MDC now say they recognise me? That is the issue. If they do, that means the MDC court action has to be withdrawn and we can start talks.”
Tsvangirai, who met the three leaders for 90 minutes on Monday, said in a statement afterwards that the MDC was ”ready for unconditional dialogue”.
Nyathi said on Tuesday: ”That means unconditional on both sides.”
Professor Eliphas Mokonoweshuro of the political science department of the University of Zimbabwe said agreement to Mugabe’s precondition would remove the basic reason for the MDC’s demand for talks.
”The cause of the political dispute between the MDC and Zanu-PF is the elections and the legality of Mugabe’s presidency,” he said.
”So how do you engage in negotiations when you say the heart of the dispute cannot be questioned?”
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma remains optimistic however, saying she believes the MDC and Zanu-PF are ready to begin talking.
When asked about these parties’ defensive positions, she said: ”Everybody has their opening lines in negotiations. That can be overcome. You can’t send a country to destruction because of that, I am sure.”
The MDC is calling for a transitional government to be followed shortly after by free and fair internationally supervised elections.
Analysts say Mugabe and most party members believe Zanu-PF would lose a ballot without being able to manipulate it. – Sapa