The main opposition party in Zimbabwe is to send senior members to South Africa and Mozambique to urge international leaders to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe’s government to engage in talks, an official said on Wednesday.
Paul Themba Nyathi, spokesperson for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said his party was sending delegates to South Africa to hopefully meet with US officials during George Bush’s visit to that country next week.
He said a second delegation would travel to the Mozambique capital Maputo to lobby leaders during the African Union summit that begins there on July 4.
Nyathi said the party’s objective would be ”to bring pressure on the Mugabe regime to get to the negotiating table.”
The MDC wants to hold unconditional talks with Mugabe’s government about the various crises gripping the country. But Mugabe has said he will only talk to the opposition party if they recognise his victory in a disputed presidential poll last year, in which MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai put up a stern challenge to his now 23-year hold on power.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of severe food, fuel and currency shortages. Annual inflation is at more than 300% and around 70% of the country’s workforce is unemployed.
Nyathi said the MDC wanted to address international leaders, journalists and government officials so that they gain an ”appreciation and understanding of the situation in Zimbabwe.”
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has called on Mugabe to leave office. He said the subject of Zimbabwe will be high on the agenda during Bush’s July 8-9 visit to South Africa.
But a senior ruling party official in Zimbabwe was quoted in Wednesday’s edition of the private Daily News as saying that, if the MDC had any problems, it should approach them and not seek foreign intervention.
”Our differences are not going to be ironed out in foreign lands,” said Didymus Mutasa, the secretary for external affairs in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
”Maybe they (the MDC) first want to seek permission from their American handlers,” he said.
The government consistently accuses the West of supporting the MDC. It accuses the opposition party of working with countries like the US to effect a ”regime change” in the southern African nation. – Sapa-AFP