Angola, Zanu-PF and MDC call for rival parties to cooperate in governing Zimbabwe after election
Robert Mugabe’s strongest ally in the region, Angola, has thrown its weight behind the idea of a government of national unity in Zimbabwe.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week Angola’s permanent secretary for foreign affairs, Manuel Gomes dos Santos, said that ”through dialogue a government of national unity must be formed” after the second-round presidential election in Zimbabwe on June 27. He believed conditions would normalise after the election.
Angola is the chair of the organ on politics, security and defence cooperation of the Southern African Development Community. It has been an outspoken supporter of Mugabe and his government.
”The two brothers in a family are fighting; you are going to get them to talk,” Dos Santos said.
He also said the Zimbabwean government currently lacked the means to run the election. It was for this reason, he said, that Mugabe’s right-hand man, Emmerson Mnangagwa, visited President José Eduardo dos Santos in Luanda when the Chinese ship carrying arms for Zimbabwe was on its way to Angola.
”They were looking for money from all African Union members to run the second elections. That’s why they came to see us: they came to ask for money,” he said. The Angolan government refused to allow the arms to be offloaded, he said.
Despite the well-known antagonism between the South African and Angolan governments, Manuel Gomes dos Santos said the SADC still had confidence in President Thabo Mbeki’s mediation role.
”We get reports from Mbeki all the time. We know we can ask him whatever we want to know. You are not going to let other people come in and take over. All these attitudes can split [the] SADC,” he said.
Despite their denials, Zimbabwean rivals Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are in fact engaged in talks in Pretoria, with Mbeki mediating.
The M&G understands that the talks are not focused on the issue of a unity government but on how to curb mounting pre-election violence in Zimbabwe, which the MDC says has killed 60 of its members.
It is understood that Mbeki is seeking undertakings from both parties that the violence will stop.
Sources close to the process say neither party will consider a unity government until after the elections.
MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai said this week there was no truth in rumours that the parties had already signed an agreement and there was no possibility of a government of national unity being agreed before the election.
Tsvangirai reaffirmed that the MDC favoured ”an inclusive government” as a way of managing Zimbabwe’s transition to a new order.
However, he also asserted that the MDC did not consider a long-term coalition government desirable.
”We wish to state that the Kenyan model of a government of national unity is not an option because here the people have clearly spoken and our circumstances are different. The people’s choice must be respected,” Tsvangirai said.
Although the MDC denies engaging in ”official talks”, MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told the M&G that the party ”remains open to any mediation that will help ease the suffering of the Zimbabwean people”.
Zanu-PF officials said Mugabe will not discuss a unity government before the run-off election.
Mugabe called a meeting of his politburo on Wednesday to discuss funeral arrangements for a former army general. A politburo member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ”there had been only brief discussion” of Mugabe’s campaign and there was ”very little prospect for any [unity government] talks at this stage”.
”It’s a bit too late for that. The focus is on winning the election. We have to negotiate from a position of strength; we are not going in there as the losers,” the member said.
However, some in Mugabe’s government acknowledge that whoever wins the election will have to negotiate a deal with the loser.
”Whoever wins the presidential election will need the other parties to be able to govern,” Bright Matonga, deputy information minister, said this week.