The South African Council of Churches has written an urgent letter to the presidency requesting President Thabo Mbeki send a delegation to Harare to help restore talks between Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
”It is our wish that President Mbeki makes a public statement to the South African public as to whether or not it is true that President Robert Mugabe is committed to the talks with leader of the MDC, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.
”We are anxious to have the president help to restore the talks,” SACC general secretary Dr Molefe Tsele said in a statement on Tuesday.
The news that Mugabe had ruled out the possibility of talks taking place was not only worrying, but seemed to be a grave setback and loss of opportunity to normalise the boiling political and economic climate in Zimbabwe.
”As the Council of Churches, we have been listening to the cries and prayers of our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe, placing their hope and faith on the proposed talks and negotiations between Zanu-PF and MDC.
”We hear them tell us time and time again that the future hope for Zimbabwe is in the commitment of the two parties talking to each other, and not in any political stand-off.
”President Mbeki has publicly said he had been personally told by President Mugabe that Zanu-PF is committed to the talks, and that, in fact, the talks are underway.
”The people of Zimbabwe, especially the churches, have repeatedly told us that they are counting on us to assist them in finding a resolution to their acute economic and political crisis.
”We will be failing in our moral obligation to be with them in their hour of need,” Tsele said.
In another statement, Democratic Alliance national chairperson Joe Seremane said Mbeki’s policy of ”quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe had been exposed as an embarrassing and costly disaster.
This was shown by Mugabe’s statement that he would not hold talks with Tsvangirai for as long as the MDC were ”allies of the Western countries” — along with his earlier statement that he would hold on to power for the next five years.
Mbeki had developed a disconcerting tendency of making behind-the-scenes assurances to Western leaders, which later turned out to be patently false, Seremane said.
Only last month, Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria, after meeting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that formal talks would soon begin between the MDC and Zanu-PF in an effort to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe.
He also told and an interviewer on SABC 2 on February 8 that ”formal negotiations” between the two parties would begin soon.
”Mugabe’s recent statement gives the lie to these claims,” Seremane said. – Sapa