Leaders of the African National Congress on Wednesday met President Robert Mugabe and expressed support for a dialogue to end the political crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe, state television reported.
African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and secretary general Gwede Mantashe met with Mugabe at Zanu-PF headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe television said.
Details of the meeting were not disclosed.
Asked if dialogue was the solution to the Zimbabwean crisis, Motlanthe said: ”Yes, precisely. When all is said and done, the unity of our people is most paramount and it is a precondition for development,” according to the report.
”The African Union has endorsed that dialogue should continue.”
The ANC team also met with the country’s two vice-presidents — Joyce Mujuru and Joseph Msika.
The visit by the ANC leaders came four days after South African President Thabo Mbeki, the region’s chief regional negotiator in the Zimbabwean crisis, met with Mugabe.
Zimbabwe opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who boycotted the June 27 presidential re-run election, snubbed that meeting with Mbeki.
The ANC party had last month issued its harshest criticism to date of Zimbabwe’s government, saying it was ”riding roughshod over the hard-won democratic rights of the people”.
”We are deeply dismayed by the actions of the government of Zimbabwe which is riding roughshod over the hard-won democratic rights of the people of that country,” the party said in a June 24 statement, three days before the controversial presidential re-run poll.
”As democrats, the ANC cannot be indifferent to the flagrant violation of every principle of democratic governance,” it said.
The ANC has traditionally been a stalwart supporter of Mugabe and Zimbabwe was often used as a base by the then South African guerrilla movement.
But Mbeki has consistently refused to criticise Mugabe.
However Mbeki’s successor as party leader, Jacob Zuma, has taken a tougher line towards Mugabe and made a point of describing the situation in Zimbabwe as a crisis.
Meanwhile, the Zanu-PF politburo, the highest decision-making body of the party, which also met on Wednesday to review the outcome of the widely-condemned one-man presidential run-off, expressed satisfaction with its outcome, the state television said.
UN vote
The Security Council is likely to vote on Thursday on targeted UN sanctions on Mugabe and 13 of his cronies.
United States Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, who on Tuesday said he was confident his sanctions draft resolution had the necessary votes in the 15-member council to ensure passage, said on Wednesday the vote could occur ”at any time”.
Vietnam’s UN Ambassador Le Luong Minh, the council chair this month, told reporters that the sponsors requested a vote for late on Wednesday but said several other delegations requested more time.
Several diplomats late on Wednesday said the vote was now expected on Thursday as Russia and China wanted to consult with their capitals.
The US draft provides for an assets freeze and a travel ban on Mugabe and 13 of his cronies as well as an arms embargo on the Harare regime.
Khalilzad said on Tuesday he believed he had the nine votes needed for passage provided there is no veto from any of the five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. He added that he did not anticipate a veto.
South Africa opposes sanctions, arguing that they would ”complicate the situation.”
Russia, China, Vietnam, Libya and Indonesia have also raised objections.
Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin Tuesday warned that rushing a vote could have ”unpredictable” consequences.
”We should be very careful about setting precedents,” he added. ”We should make it clear to begin with that the Security Council is not about to enter into the whole realm of mediating elections, or passing judgement on elections.”
”The solution can only be achieved by the Zimbabweans themselves with help of South African leaders,” China’s deputy ambassador Liu Zhenmin told reporters on Wednesday. ”We are going to support the mediation efforts.”
In Japan, where he attended the just-ended G8 summit, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the world community to support UN sanctions against Zimbabwe, denouncing the Mugabe regime as a ”criminal cabal” who stole power.
”For the first time, the G8, and every country within the G8, has come out in favour of sanctions” against Zimbabwe, he said.
He added that the G8, by promising new actions, including targeted ”financial measures” against leaders, had opened the way for the Security Council to adopt a sanctions resolution proposed by London and Washington.
The US draft would also demand that the Harare government ”begin without delay a substantive dialogue between the parties with the aim of arriving at a peaceful solution that reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people as expressed by the March 29 [first-round presidential] elections.”
The US draft resolution would direct UN chief Ban Ki-moon to appoint ”an individual of international standing and expertise to serve as his special representative … who would support the negotiation process between the political parties in Zimbabwe.”
Diplomats said former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who helped broker a power-sharing agreement in Kenya last February, former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, Nigerian ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and Ghanaian President John Kufuor were being considered.
Humiliation
A call by eight of the world’s most powerful leaders to send a UN envoy to Zimbabwe and to press for new sanctions against Mugabe’s regime is a stinging humiliation for Mbeki and his policy of quiet diplomacy, analysts said on Wednesday.
”It is extremely humiliating,” said Hussein Solomon, director of the Pretoria-based Centre for International Policy studies.
Solomon said that Mbeki’s refusal to criticise Mugabe had not only been discredited in the eyes of the West but was regarded with increasing scepticism closer to home.
”Various African countries, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, have all been critical of Mr Mugabe, and for some reason Mr Mbeki refuses to budge. This is partly his personality — he would have to accept his failure. – AFP
