Deputy president Jacob Zuma is to host a meeting with Burundi president Domitien Ndayizeye and representatives of three key political parties at the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria at the weekend.
Zuma’s office said the talks were aimed at advancing Burundi’s peace process and holding elections later this year.
Scheduled to attend with Ndayizeye was Pierre Nkurunziza, legal representative of what was once the largest rebel grouping, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy — Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD).
Also in Pretoria for the weekend’s talks would be the presidents of Burundi’s main political parties — Jean Minani of the Front for Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu) and Jean-Baptiste Manwangari of Union for National Progress (Uprona).
Elections, provisionally scheduled for October, would mark the end of a three-year transition following the signing of the Arusha peace accord in Tanzania in 2001.
Zuma, a mediator in the peace process, has already welcomed a United Nations decision earlier this week to take over responsibility from the African Union for a peacekeeping force in the country. – Sapa