President Thabo Mbeki has agreed with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to wait for a report on Zimbabwe by a UN special envoy before taking any course of action, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reports.
Mbeki and Annan held informal discussions on the matter at a summit of African leaders in Libya.
Meanwhile, UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka has added five more days to her week-long visit to Zimbabwe to hear what Zimbabweans say about the situation.
President Robert Mugabe’s controversial Operation Muvabatsatsvina (Drive Out Rubbish) campaign, which has left 200 000 homeless, is in its seventh week.
According to an Agence France Presse report, in the past week state media have been referring to the clean-up capaign in the past tense, saying it has been superceded by a reconstruction campaign.
However, demolitions have carried on, read the report.
The BBC Africa website reports that a former director of Zimbabwe’s secret police left the ruling party over the ”callous” destruction of people’s homes.
Former ruling party MP Pearson Mbalekwa contradicted President Robert Mugabe’s assertions that the operation had been planned long in advance, read the report.
”If there was a plan, we wouldn’t have people sleeping under trees or next to rivers,” it quoted him saying.
Mbalekwa, a former senior director of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), was a member of Zanu-PF’s senior body, the central committee, until resigning last Friday, the report read.
It added that Mbalekwa said neither the central committee nor MPs were consulted until the crackdown had already begun.
”This thing was not planned, it was done haphazardly, thereby causing a lot of suffering to people,” the BBC quoted him saying.
He said he had no idea why the operation was being carried out.
”It puzzles me and it puzzles all sane people,” he told the BBC.
‘We are gravely concerned’
New Zealand and Australia have urged the G8 countries meeting in Scotland to act on the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, Foreign Minister Phil Goff revealed on Wednesday.
The two Pacific countries have sent a diplomatic aide memoire to the Gleneagles meeting pointing out that the G8 has a critical opportunity to underline the international community’s condemnation of human rights abuses in the African nation, said a spokesperson for Goff.
He said the message urges the G8 to demand the Mugabe government take immediate steps to provide food and shelter for those made homeless, and allow nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) into Zimbabwe to provide assistance without hinderance.
It also asks the G8 leaders to press southern African nations to bring their influence to bear on Zimbabwe on democracy, human rights, good governance and the rule of law.
Goff revealed the approach to the G8 when announcing that the government had formally asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to ban Zimbabwe from its touring schedule because of appalling human rights abuses taking place there.
The New Zealand cricket team is scheduled to play a series in Zimbabwe in August and while the government opposes the tour it said it cannot stop the players going.
Goff released the text of a letter he has sent to ICC President Ehsan Mani, saying: ”We are gravely concerned for the wellbeing of the people of Zimbabwe, and believe that it is extremely difficult to justify sporting tours going ahead in such circumstances.
”Since early June, over 200 000 people have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed by the government of Zimbabwe. This came on top of an already bad situation in the country. The government has been systematically undermining the rule of law, the independence of the media and the judiciary, and committing violence against its citizens.”
Cricket officials say that under existing ICC rules, the New Zealand team would have to pay $2-million to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union if it does not go.
”New Zealand Cricket may therefore be forced into a situation of having to tour Zimbabwe even if its members have moral objections to having to play cricket while just kilometres from the grounds people are having their homes destroyed and their basic human rights abused,” Goff said in the letter.
”We believe that the ICC cannot ignore these gross abuses as if they were not happening,” Goff said, urging the body to exclude tours to Zimbabwe and by Zimbabwe while the situation continues.
Goff said Australia supported New Zealand’s submission and they called on other countries to endorse it.
The New Zealand government has said it will ban the Zimbabwe team from making a scheduled return tour of New Zealand at the end of the year. – Sapa-AFP