South African facilitators cancel Zimbabwe visit

News — By admin on June 14, 2010 5:39 pm

A team of South African diplomats cobbled together to rescue Zimbabwe’s crumbling power sharing deal called off a planned trip to Harare on Monday. According to the state owned media, quoting Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba.

“They have written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advising that they are no longer coming. The matter is no longer an issue. They have called it off,” Charamba seemed to take joy in announcing.

His boss, Mugabe is refusing to implement the provisions of a power sharing deal signed in 2008 even though he and his party lost the harmonized presidential and parliamentary elections in that year. Only a hastily put together deal by former South African President Thabo Mbeki kept him in power.

Press reports had indicated that South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team including his International Relations Advisor Lindiwe Zulu were expected to fly in on Monday. But Zulu told journalists Zuma was still studying a report compiled by the negotiators.

“We received the report from the principals and handed it over to President Zuma. The facilitation team has to meet and look at the report and only then can we determine the next course of action,” she said. She said the contents of the report would determine the team’s next step.

It’s now likely the matter will be referred to the chairman of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation, Mozambique’s President Armando Guebbuza.

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