Zimbabwe’s three-way crisis talks are taking his fellow countrymen nowhere fast, argues moses moyo |
 |
When Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, was asked recently how the three-way crisis talks supposedly taking place between President Mugabe's government, the Zimbabwean opposition MDC and himself were going,
Mbeki replied: "Very well." It was the best joke of his entire presidency.
The talks, requested earlier in the year by the meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), are stalled.
Sources from within both the MDC and Mugabe's own cabinet told me this week that the two sides remain as far apart as ever.
Mbeki is due to report back on progress when the SADC meets again in Zambia in a couple of months' time, and no-one believes he will have any good news to announce - unless, of course, he acts true to form, and invents something.
There has been an apparent attempt to
|
|
 |
 |
|
| Thabo Mbeki cracked the best joke of his presidency when he claimed the talks with Mugabe were going ‘very well’ |
|
|
make progress. Mbeki has recently sent teams of negotiators to meet and talk separately to the MDC and the Mugabe government.
The MDC were represented by the Secretary-Generals of the two wings of the party, Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti. Zanu-PF fielded a four-man team headed by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
My source in the MDC says: "We told the South African negotiators that our priority was to amend the constitution, in particular to establish a truly independent electoral commission. We also said we had to have agreement that international monitors would be allowed into Zimbabwe for the 2008 election."
My source within the Mugabe cabinet told me: "The party does not view the issue of the constitution as a matter of urgency, and we told them so. We also said that overseas observers would wish to achieve a regime change, so will not be allowed in. And we stated most emphatically that the MDC must, before anything else, admit that Robert 
|
