Senior party negotiators representing both the MDC-T and Zanu-PF, a SADC representative and a government minister and Zanu-PF politburo member, this week confirmed that Mugabe and Zanu-PF are against Zuma's facilitation team playing a central role in election preparations as mandated by SADC and have decided to brush them off during their visits.
Zuma's team includes his spokesperson Mac Maharaj, political adviser Charles Nqakula and international relations adviser Lindiwe Zulu.
A SADC representative, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the SADC team had been in and out of Zimbabwe attempting to secure access to joint Zanu-PF and MDC meetings, without success.
He said they had been told off the record that their presence was unnecessary and tantamount to interference in the running of government.
At its Livingstone summit in 2011, SADC mandated a team to work with both parties to ensure a free and fair election.
Last week, Zuma's team was in Harare to meet government principals and party political leaders but only managed to see Welshman Ncube, the leader of the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change. After that meeting, Ncube, who is also trade and industry minister, said the team had not been able to meet Mugabe because his office had indicated he would be unavailable "indefinitely".
Global political agreement
Another government official confirmed that Zuma's team had been snubbed, and said there is "growing hostility and tension between Mugabe and Zuma".
"That is why Zuma's team was told last week that Mugabe would not be available to meet them indefinitely. Last month Zuma's team was blocked from attending meetings with Jomic [the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee] by Zanu-PF representatives on the committee," said the official. "SADC envoys have also been brushed off by Mugabe and his party. Now it's the UN."
Jomic is the committee set up by the unity government to ensure implementation of the global political agreement. It is also meant to ensure ongoing dialogue between the parties and hears complaints from the parties relating to the unity agreement. All the parties are represented on the committee.
Zimbabwe media reported this month that Maharaj, Nqukula and Zulu left Harare seething with anger after Zanu-PF politburo members Nicholas Goche and Jonathan Moyo refused to allow them into a Jomic meeting, saying their presence was not needed as it would be an infringement on Zimbabwe's sovereignty.
Zulu confirmed this week that Zanu-PF had complained about the terms of reference regarding the SADC team's involvement, but this had apparently been resolved after Zanu-PF was reminded that these terms had been set out at the Livingstone summit.
Security situation
She said it was not true that her team had been denied a meeting with Mugabe and they were expected to return to Harare on April 30 to meet Jomic as well as party negotiators to discuss outstanding issues of the global political agreement.
In moves perceived as attempts to avoid further scrutiny of Zimbabwe's political and security situation before the elections, Mugabe and Zanu-PF are also refusing to co-operate with a UN electoral mission that was recently blocked from entering the country.
According to media reports, the UN team abandoned its mission to Zimbabwe after it waited in Johannesburg for days as Zimbabwe's government refused to give the green light for their visit.
The UN team, led by Tadjoudine Ali-Diabacte – a former member of the Togolese Election Commission who has served as an election observer for the National Democratic Institute – was going to carry out a needs assessment mission before deciding whether to chip in for Zimbabwe's elections after the country requested election funding.