(TALKZIMBABWE) Tsvangirai criticises President Mbeki, again

Tsvangirai criticises President Mbeki, again
Ralph Mutema
Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:23:00 +0000

THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday criticised South African President Thabo Mbeki for trying to push him into signing a deal with President Robert Mugabe.

In fresh criticism of the Southern African Development Community’s appointed mediator, Tsvangirai said he would not change his position in power-sharing negotiations if pressured by President Mbeki.

"President Mbeki is coming but don't worry about him. He is not the one who is going to sign the agreement,” he told a crowd gathered to commemorate the MDC party’s ninth anniversary in Gweru this weekend.

“He is going to have to persuade me to shift my position. But don't worry. One thing I will not do is to sell you out," continued.

Tsvangirai has, in the past, criticised President Mbeki saying he was not an impartial negotiator in the all-party talks aimed at resolving the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe.

In June this year the MDC-T leader told President Mbeki that he was no longer fit to serve as the region's mediator in Zimbabwe's political crisis owing to a "lack of neutrality", and that "there will be no country left" if he continued to side with President Mugabe.

Tsvangirai, however, made a U-turn after Sadc re-endorsed President Mbeki at an extra-ordinary Sadc summit held in Lusaka (Zambia) under the chairmanship of the late President Levy Mwanawasa. The African Union also gave the mandate for mediation to President Mbeki.

President Mbeki has brought the two main parties, the MDC and Zanu PF, to the negotiating table. He has mediated in the all-party talks since early 2007 culminating in the historic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two factions of the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF party.