President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the main opposition movement have held preliminary talks under a new regional drive to end Zimbabwe’s political and economic turmoil, a ruling party official said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki was appointed by the Southern African Development Community in March this year to bring Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to the negotiating table.
The ruling party and two MDC factions sent representatives to Pretoria where they held weekend talks with South Africa’s local government minister Sydney Mufumadi, Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa confirmed on Monday.
”I understand that these are preliminary talks where they have to agree on the agenda but I do not have much detail on it,” Mutasa told Reuters.
News of the talks was the main headline on state radio in Zimbabwe for most of the day on Monday.
The MDC has in the past accused Zanu-PF of seeking to derail the talks after the ruling party twice failed to send envoys to scheduled meetings with South African officials.
Last week main MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai charged that government’s proposals to amend the constitution was ”preemptive and contemptuous” of Mbeki’s mediation efforts.
Mugabe’s government has put forward a Bill proposing joint presidential and parliamentary polls in 2008 and amending the rules for electing a new president should the post become vacant during the presidential term.
The Bill is expected to be debated in parliament in July.
Mugabe (83) and in power since independence from Britain in 1980 says the MDC is being used by London to oust him from power as punishment for seizing white-owned farms for landless blacks.
Zimbabwe’s political crisis takes place amid deepening economic turmoil in which the country, once the regional breadbasket, is struggling with shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange as well as the world’s highest inflation rate, now more than 3 700%.
South Africa, the regional power, has been reluctant to publicly criticise Mugabe but is increasingly feeling repercussions from Zimbabwe’s meltdown as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants surge across its border and analysts warn of spreading economic turmoil.
Conspirators
Meanwhile, six men, including a former Zimbabwe army officer charged with allegedly plotting a coup against Mugabe, will appear in the High Court next Friday on treason charges, their lawyer said on Saturday.
The six — Albert Mugove Mutapo (40), a retired soldier, Nyasha Zivuka (32), Oncemore Mudzuradhona (41), Emmanuel Marara (40), Patson Mupfure (46) and Shingirai Matemachani (20) — were late on Friday refused bail at the request of state prosecutors by the High Court, Jonathan Samkange said.
The suspects pleaded not guilty when they were charged in a Harare magistrate’s court last week, he said.
The state prosecution charged that between June last year and May this year, the six conspired to overthrow the government. The defendants allegedly wanted to replace Mugabe with Minister of Rural Housing and Amenities Emmerson Mnangagwa, according to court papers Samkange read to Agence France-Presse.
Mutapo is alleged to have conspired with the co-accused and recruited members of the security forces from the army, air force and police in preparation for the coup, the lawyer said. – Reuters, Sapa-AFP