Zanu PF deny Zuma reps will ‘meet our military’

Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo dismissed as “nonsensical” recent media reports that South African President Jacob Zuma’s representatives were planning to travel to Harare for talks with security chiefs to discuss reforms.

“Where on earth have you seen people coming to see security forces of another country? It is nonsensical,” Gumbo told journalists after the Zanu PF politburo meeting in Harare on Wednesday. Gumbo said the politburo had also decided that elections will take place this year and not 2012 or 2013 has pushed for by SADC.

“We want to speed these processes (writing of constitution) and there is no reason why they can take three years yet we have agreed on two years,” Gumbo said, while accusing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party of seeking to delay the constitution process in order to avoid polls this year.

The ZANU-PF politburo rejected statements by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, the party’s chief negotiator in ongoing power-sharing discussions, that elections would have to be put off until 2012 or even 2013 given the amount of preparation needed.

Tsvangirai won elections in 2008 but formed a power-sharing government with the man he defeated (Robert Mugabe) after a bloody one-man presidential run-off was engineered by army generals loyal to Mugabe. Over 500 opposition activists were murdered by state security and military agents deployed countrywide.

Tsvangirai who became Prime Minister under the compromise deal has also ruled out a fresh poll this year, saying constitutional and political reforms must come first to ensure a free and fair poll whose outcome cannot be contested.