The Democratic Alliance on Monday repeated its call for President Thabo Mbeki to urgently break the ”silence of silent diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe.
”In recent weeks a variety of actors both within and outside Zimbabwe (have) called on President Mbeki to take a more assertive role in resolving the current crisis,” DA spokesperson Joe Seremane said in a statement.
Most recently, Welshman Ncube of the Movement for Democratic Change had criticised Mbeki’s ”remote control” approach, which had not led to any substantive improvement in relations between President Robert Mugabe’s regime and the opposition MDC.
Ncube this weekend accused Mbeki of misleading the world by constantly asserting that there was progress in the talks between the Zimbabwean government and the MDC, Seremane said.
Mbeki’s own June 30 deadline for a resolution to the conflict in Zimbabwe would clearly be missed.
Ncube’s criticism of Mbeki followed a call by 20 human rights groups, led by Amnesty International, for South Africa to put increased pressure on Zimbabwe over human rights.
The group appealed to Mbeki in particular to take a more public stand in resolving the crisis in Zimbabwe.
”Of critical short-term importance… is the fact that a new report by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee shows that over two million Zimbabweans are vulnerable to starvation.”
The report contradicted the Zimbabwean government’s forecast of a bumper crop in Zimbabwe.
”The test of any policy is whether it brings tangible improvements; the president needs to admit that is clearly not so in this case.”
The DA’s ‘Road Map to Democracy’ in Zimbabwe foresaw a number of stages that would ultimately lead to fresh free and fair elections.
The plan included a set of inducements and punishments, including selective sanctions to ensure the Mugabe regime co-operated in such a process. – Sapa