The role of South Africa as a mediator in the lead-up to the planned October 30 elections in the Côte d’Ivoire has been successful so far, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday.
Pahad said Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota would report to the United Nations on Wednesday on the current state of mediation.
South Africa’s efforts in this regard would continue in line with the African Union and the United Nations mandates.
He did admit, however, that there had been setbacks in the process.
A voters’ roll that was to have been published at least three months before the October 30 election date had yet to materialise, and the opposition were voicing concerns about various issues.
”It would seem that the opposition Force Nouvelle have decided they will take action to force President Laurent Gbagbo out of the country come election day. They then plan to put their own transitional government in place. We sincerely hope this is not true.”
Pahad said the opposition had at a late stage reneged on conditions agreed upon by all parties, such as national representation in the Independent Electoral Commission. The FN had wanted South Africa to ensure representation at local level as well.
”This was not the role of the mediator. We had to explain that this was the role of the IEC.”
Pahad said the opposition had agreed to that condition, only to cite it later as a reason not to go ahead with the elections.
”At one stage it appeared that the FN were reluctant to go ahead with the elections because of what they said was a failure by President Gbagbo to implement certain agreements.”
The concerns were found to have risen from translations of the agreements, to which Gbago said he would agree to the opposition’s preferred wording.
”This did not seem to resolve the issues. The opposition is now arguing that militias are not being disarmed. This has been implemented. The disarming of militias started on August 24 and is continuing.”
As South Africa’s mediation role had been concluded, it was now the UN and African Union’s responsibility to ensure that the changes were implemented.
”We are convinced that President Gbagbo has acted in absolute implementation of all the necessary processes. If solutions are not found, Cote d’Ivoire will erupt into another cycle of bloodshed,” Pahad said. – Sapa