Zuma takes tough stance on Mugabe

By Never Kadungure | Nehanda Politics |

PRETORIA – South African president Jacob Zuma has said SADC and the African Union, as the guarantors of the power sharing deal in Zimbabwe, will do everything in their power to ensure free and fair elections this year.

Zuma the facilitator to the Zimbabwe crisis met Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai during a closed-door meeting on Sunday in Pretoria.

Zuma is reported to have assured Tsvangirai that he will do everything he can as facilitator to pressure a stubborn President Robert Mugabe to implement electoral and other reforms agreed to by partners in the inclusive government.

The MDC-T leader left Harare on Sunday to embark on a regional tour in which he will be briefing Sadc and African Union leaders of the political situation in Zimbabwe. He is also said to be pushing for a SADC Troika and full summit in which all the outstanding issues can be resolved before elections.

According to Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka, the MDC-T leader is pushing for the implementation of all outstanding reforms under the GPA.

“Chief among which are public media reforms, security sector realignment, a clean and credible voters roll and the alignment of laws to the new constitution,” Tamborinyoka said.

Tsvangirai has also met United States-based human rights activist Jesse Jackson in Johannesburg. Its reported that Jackson told Tsvangirai that he was keen to visit Zimbabwe soon.

After South Africa, Tsvangirai went to Tanzania. He is also expected to take his campaign to Mozambican leader Armando Guebuza and Namibian Prime Minister Hage Geingob later this week.

Tsvangirai’s visit to Zuma comes at a time Mugabe’s Zanu PF party is accused of blocking efforts by the South African facilitation team from making any meaningful progress in its mediation efforts, calling their presence ‘unnecessary’.

According to a report by South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper, Robert Mugabe and his party do not want Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team playing a central role in Zimbabwe’s election plans. As a result, the party has actively been snubbing the SADC appointed team.

Another government official confirmed that Zuma’s team had been snubbed, and said there is “growing hostility and tension between Mugabe and Zuma.”