A group of South African church leaders arrived back in Zimbabwe on Monday to discuss an aid package for people affected by the government’s blitz on illegal homes and market stalls that has left hundreds of thousands homeless.
”We have come to assess and discuss with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches the aid package the South African Council of Churches [SACC] and the South African government will put together,” said Bishop Ivan Abrahams, a spokesperson for the group.
”We are here to ascertain what the needs are from our partners. President [Thabo] Mbeki has also asked us to be part of discussions on the United Nations envoy’s report,” he told reporters shortly after the church leaders’ arrival in Harare.
The visit follows a fact-finding mission last week by an SACC delegation to look at the impact of the Zimbabwean government’s clean-up campaign, which the UN says has left 200 000 people homeless.
The church leaders then described the two-pronged operation that President Robert Mugabe’s government says is aimed at cleaning up crime and grime as ”unparalleled in modern-day Africa”, adding that conditions in transit camps for displaced people are ”appalling”.
They met opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai but were denied a meeting with Mugabe.
Church leaders urged the South African government to ease restrictions on Zimbabweans seeking refugee status in the neighbouring country.
Abrahams shot down claims by the state-media in Zimbabwe last week that the clerics were ”sponsored by Britain”, which Mugabe accuses of harbouring intentions to recolonise his country using the opposition Movement for Democratic Change as a front.
”I don’t know where that is coming from,” said Abrahams.
”Our tickets were paid for by our individual denominations,” he said.
South Africa has refrained from criticising the slum demolitions, saying it will await the findings of a UN special envoy’s 12-day fact-finding mission earlier this month.
On Friday, Mbeki promised support for church relief efforts for people displaced under Zimbabwe’s clean-up campaign.
He made the undertaking during a meeting with SACC representatives in Pretoria on Friday afternoon, church leaders told reporters.
Earlier on Monday, media reports said Mugabe has appealed to South Africa for a loan of several hundred million rands to buy fuel, food, seeds and fertiliser.
According to the reports, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are preparing to call in Zimbabwe’s debt of R4,5-billion next week.
Mugabe’s appeal to South Africa was apparently made to Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka during her visit to Zimbabwe last Tuesday.
It is reliably understood that Mugabe was told that any help from South Africa would be subject to ”strict pre-conditions”.
Apparently one of the pre-conditions is that the country’s clean-up operation be immediately stopped.
The South African government said the issue of a possible loan to Zimbabwe may need to be decided by the Cabinet and then Parliament, Joel Netshitenzhe, the government communications head, said in an interview with SAfm on Monday afternoon. — I-Net Bridge, Sapa, Sapa-AFP