Zimbabwe’s feuding leaders on Friday came under fresh regional pressure to break a two-week impasse that threatens to sink the foundering unity government, with calls for a new summit to resolve
the crisis.
Regional mediators held separate talks on Friday with veteran President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader who joined the government in February.
After the talks with the so-called Troika of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), Tsvangirai said a new summit was expected to discuss ways to break the deadlock.
“I have been advised that the SADC Troika will recommend the convening of an extraordinary summit to deal with the matter,” Tsvangirai told reporters.
“The Troika does not solve anything. Its mandate is to gather information and make recommendations,” he said.
“We have to find a solution to the crisis so we can get the inclusive government working again,” he added.
Tsvangirai suspended cooperation with Mugabe’s party two weeks ago in protest at the arrests of his supporters and intractable disputes over appointments to key posts.
Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo which currently chairs SADC, said Zimbabwe must stick to the unity deal brokered last year by the regional bloc.
“There is a problem within the Zimbabwe government, that is a fact. But the situation has not gotten out of hand,” Kabila said on a visit to South Africa.
“As the region we believe that the agreement signed last year is still binding. Any amendments must be made within the framework of that agreement,” said Kabila.
For its part, Mugabe’s party accuses Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of failing to lobby Western nations for the lifting of a travel ban and asset freeze on the president and about
200 of his family members and allies.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who met with the negotiators on Thursday, told state media that the sanctions on Mugabe’s inner circle were the main threat to the unity deal.
“The bigger and substantive outstanding issues that have undermined the inclusive government and economic recovery and threatened political stability were sanctions and the failure by the MDC to call for their removal,” Chinamasa told the state-run Herald.
The two leaders formed the unity government to end political violence that erupted after last year’s failed presidential elections.
The United Nations and rights group say most of the victims of the attacks last year were MDC supporters.
The party says its members remain the target of attacks and arrests. The UN’s top torture expert Manfred Nowak was expelled from Zimbabwe on Thursday, despite an invitation from Tsvangirai to
visit Harare to review the situation.
Nowak blamed his expulsion on Mugabe’s party and said he feared the government could fall apart.
The unity government is meant to draft a new constitution that would pave the way for fresh elections, and regional leaders are eager for the deal to hold.
Despite the political crisis, the government has halted Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown by abandoning the local currency and easing price controls.
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that the economy would probably grow by 3% this year — after more than a decade of contraction — but warned the economic gains depended on political stability. – AFP