Mugabe heads for clash with spurned Mbeki

Mugabe heads for clash with spurned Mbeki
Wisani Wa Ka Ngobeni, Wally Mbhele and Sunday Times Foreign Desk
Published:Jul 15, 2007


President Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe are on course for a head-on collision following the collapse this week of inter-party talks aimed at resolving Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis.

Mugabe has effectively dumped Mbeki as mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis. He has ordered his party’s key negotiators, Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, to boycott negotiations that were supposed to resume in Pretoria this week.
The talks are chaired by South Africa’s Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi.
Mugabe took the decision to boycott the talks at his Zanu- PF’s central committee meeting on July 7. He did not give Mbeki any reasons for his team’s no- show this week.
The Sunday Times can, however, reveal that a furious Mugabe has accused Mbeki of promising Western European leaders — in particular former British Prime Minister Tony Blair — that he would secure Mugabe’s exit from Zimbabwean politics.

Mugabe is also said to be unhappy that Pretoria appears sympathetic to the suggestion by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that Zimbabwe needs a new constitution before its elections next year.

South African officials were this week frantically trying to rescue the dialogue.
Mugabe’s latest antics come at a time when his political fortunes are increasingly waning within his own Zanu-PF. He is expected to be ousted from office during Zanu-PF’s critical special congress in December due to growing internal opposition and his country’s dire economic meltdown.

Mugabe’s pullout from negotiations also puts him on a collision course with Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders, who appointed Mbeki as mediator in March.
Senior South African government officials say Mbeki would report Mugabe’s actions to the SADC leaders when they meet in Zambia next month.
Mbeki would tell SADC leaders that Mugabe was an “obstacle” to a political settlement. According to senior government officials, Mbeki has been pushing Mugabe to agree to a “draft constitution” that will ensure Zimbabwe has free and fair elections next year.

The draft, the officials said, had been compiled before the 2005 election in Zimbabwe. The document, signed by both Zanu- PF and the MDC, has been gathering dust in Mbeki’s office.
An official said Mugabe had previously agreed to it but was now refusing to endorse it. One of the key issues in the draft is the formation of an independent electoral commission.

The official said: “If Zanu-PF does not come to the negotiating table, President Mbeki would have no option but to go back to SADC leaders and brief them about the developments. He will certainly tell them his view of the situation and the individual who might be preventing the South African government from helping Zimbabweans find a political settlement. SADC will have to decide on the way forward because it is a collective issue,” he said.
The official view in Pretoria is that Mugabe is a “major stumbling block”.

SADC leaders are now expected to confront Mugabe directly for the first time at their summit. Diplomatic sources say the chairman of the SADC organ on politics, defence and security, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, to whom Mbeki reports on the Zimbabwe mediation, is leading a campaign to tackle Mugabe once and for all.

Zanu-PF insiders said party leaders feared that Mugabe’s continued hold on power was threatening their business interests. A faction led by retired army chief General Solomon Mujuru is pushing hard for Mugabe to quit in December.

Mugabe’s close ally, Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, on Tuesday wrote a “private and confidential” memo to Mugabe warning him his price reduction blitz had led to “unintended consequences” that could lead to the fall of his government within six months.