MDC ambassadors to be deployed Dec?

By Fortune Tazvida

With SADC regional pressure cranking up on Zanu PF to abide by a power sharing agreement hammered out last year, Mugabe’s regime on Friday moved to try and ease the pressure by announcing that MDC nominated ambassadors will be deployed in December.

Ambassadors Hebson Makuvise, Hilda Suka-Mafudze, Jacqueline Nomhla Zwambila, Mabed Khumbulani from MDC-T and MDC-M’s Getrude Stevenson-Dickey completed two months diplomatic training in Harare early this month.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is on a tour to lobby regional leaders to exert pressure on Mugabe. While Tsvangirai is in the middle of this tour a senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said of the ambassadors (one of the outstanding issues), ‘they have been assigned and are likely to be posted to their respective countries in December this year.’

Makuvise formerly the MDC chief representative to the United Kingdom has been assigned to Germany, Zwambila (Tsvangirai’s former PA) to Australia, Mafudze will be in Sudan, Khumbulani has been posted to Nigeria, while Stevenson is going to Senegal.

On Wednesday, the ambassadors visited the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry where they were briefed on its operations by Minister Walter Mzembi. The movement on the appointment of ambassadors seems clearly designed to take the sting out of Tsvangirai’s tour. But then again Mugabe has always used delaying tactics.

The deployment of the ambassadors has been postponed several times as with the swearing in of Roy Bennett as Deputy Agriculture Minister. Each time Mugabe had an excuse for the postponement and with Bennett changed the excuse to blame his terrorism trial. The new December date being announced for deploying the ambassadors is part of the same strategy.