President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday said South Africa remained a neutral mediator in Côte d’Ivoire’s political deadlock, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported in radio news.
Zuma denied that South Africa was favouring Ivorian strongman Laurent Gbagbo in that country’s political crisis.
“We should speak in one voice as the African Union (AU) to the Ivorians. Whatever resolution we come to, the Ivorians, whatever party, must not doubt that there are people outside who think differently,” Zuma said.
“They must know the AU has spoken,” he said.
Zuma was appointed to an AU crisis council, along with five other presidents, to help persuade Gbagbo to relinquish the country’s presidency.
Other crisis panel members are Blaise Compaore, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Idriss Deby and Jakaya Kikwete, the heads of state of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad and Tanzania respectively.
The West African country, the world’s top cocoa producer, has been in crisis since a November 28 presidential election that both incumbent Gbagbo and rival Alassane Ouattara claim to have won. Ouattara was proclaimed the winner by the electoral commission and is widely regarded by foreign governments as having legitimately won the UN-certified poll.
The United Nations human rights office said last month that at least 247 people were killed in violence in Côte d’Ivoire since its disputed presidential election. — Sapa