The Zimbabwean opposition on Monday refuted remarks by South African President Thabo Mbeki that it has agreed to early elections in Zimbabwe.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) also rebutted Mbeki’s insistence in a South African television broadcast on Sunday that a timetable for formal talks with President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party has been worked out.
Mbeki told the South African Broadcasting Corporation in an interview on Sunday that the two Zimbabwe parties ”generally agreed” to hold parliamentary elections in March next year, three months before the five-yearly deadline for the polls.
He said a programme for talks drafted in December included an agenda for formal negotiations on Zimbabwe’s deepening economic and political crisis.
Opposition secretary general Welshman Ncube said there had only been informal contact between the two parties on what he called ”talks about talks”.
No substantive issues were discussed, he said.
”It cannot possibly be true that there can be any agreement between the MDC and Zanu-PF to bring forward the parliamentary elections,” Ncube said.
However, presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo told the Mail & Guardian Online on Monday that Mbeki stands by his remarks.
Mbeki met separately with Mugabe and opposition leaders during a visit to Harare on December 18.
He told the South African public broadcaster the beginning of formal talks was only delayed by the year-end holiday period.
In January, Mbeki also told visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that Mugabe had agreed to enter formal negotiations with opposition leaders.
Ncube, who headed the opposition side in previous failed talks, said then that the opposition had received no indication from Mugabe he was ready to resume unconditional negotiations.
Ncube said on Monday the ruling party was still delaying the resumption of formal dialogue.
”We do, nevertheless, agree with President Mbeki on the urgent need for a process of formal dialogue to take place. We share his sentiment that postponing the process is to the detriment of the people of Zimbabwe whose suffering has reached unprecedented levels,” Ncube said.
Mugabe has sent the opposition no word on his position on any new talks.
Talks between Mugabe’s party and the opposition broke down in 2002 after Mugabe demanded the opposition recognise his disputed victory in presidential polls in March of that year.
Opposition leaders and independent observers say Mugabe, the only black ruler since independence in 1980, used intimidation and vote rigging to win re-election and continue his authoritarian rule.
The opposition has refused to drop a court challenge on the poll results that gave Mugabe a narrow victory over its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
No immediate comment was available from the government on Mbeki’s latest remarks.
Neighbouring South Africa’s policy of ”quiet diplomacy” toward Zimbabwe has drawn domestic and international criticism.
Zimbabwe faces its worst political and economic crisis since independence, with soaring inflation and acute shortages of food, gasoline and essential goods.
Mugabe has also stepped up a crackdown on dissent, arresting opposition and labour leaders and shutting down the country’s only independent daily newspaper.
In December, South Africa protested a decision to prolong Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Commonwealth as undemocratic and unhelpful, brushing aside concerns by the group of Britain and its former colonies about democratic and human rights abuses in the country. — Sapa-AP