AU, UN set to monitor talks
AFP-Herald Reporter.
South African President Thabo Mbeki yesterday invited the African Union and the United Nations to join a new "reference group" with Sadc that will liaise on his efforts to mediate a solution to Zimbabwe’s problems, a top aide said. President Mbeki, however, remains fully in charge of the mediation process as mandated by Sadc and the AU, but the group can monitor progress and give him its views.
Speaking after President Mbeki met AU Commission chief Mr Jean Ping and UN envoy Mr Haile Menkerios in Pretoria, South African Local Government Minister Mr Sydney Mufamadi said the new group would support the Mr Mbeki in his mission to mediate between the ruling Zanu-PF and MDC in Harare on behalf of the 14-nation Sadc regional bloc.
"The special representantive of Sadc (Angolan Deputy Foreign Minister George Chikoti), the AU and the UN were briefed by President Mbeki and he invited them to constitute a reference group with the mediator on an ongoing basis," said Mr Mufamadi, who is President Mbeki’s right-hand man in the mediation effort.
"They will appoint people who will be based at the venue country. They will get briefings on a regular basis from the facilitator."
President Mbeki, who was appointed by Sadc a year ago to mediate in Zimbabwe, met Mr Ping and Mr Menkerios behind closed doors, a spokesman in the president’s office said.
"I can confirm there is a meeting. It is in Pretoria at the presidential guesthouse," Thabang Chiloane told AFP.
South African Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was to give an update on her leader’s mediation efforts at yesterday’s meeting of Sadc foreign ministers in Durban, with the South African government insistent that a resolution to the Zimbabwe issue remains the sole preserve of Sadc.
"Our view has always been, and I am stressing it, we are being diverted by a fake argument about the expansion of the Sadc facilitation," Deputy Foreign Minister Mr Aziz Pahad told reporters earlier this week.
Yesterday’s meeting between President Mbeki and the AU and UN officials is expected to pave the way for the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding setting the agenda for dialogue between Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions.
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday made a last-minute decision to withhold his signature from the MoU.
Tsvangirai told The Star newspaper of South Africa on Thursday that he was awaiting the outcome of yesterday’s meeting between President Mbeki and Mr Ping before he could sign the MoU. — AFP-Herald Reporter.
Labels: AU, JEAN PING, THABO MBEKI, UN, ZIMBABWE
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Ping snubs MDC official ahead of Mbeki meeting
By Lindie Whiz
Last updated: 07/19/2008 11:53:24
AFRICAN Union Commission chairman Jean Ping – meeting South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria on Friday – snubbed Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after it sent a junior official to meet him in France on Wednesday.
The MDC, pushing for President Thabo Mbeki to be sidelined in favour of an African Union mediator in the diplomatic push for a political settlement to the crisis in Zimbabwe, wanted to brief Ping ahead of his meeting with Mbeki.
Diplomatic sources revealed Ping declined to meet the MDC’s emissary, George Sibotshiwe, the Johannesburg-based spokesman for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and a virtual newcomer to Zimbabwe’s political theatre.
“Ping refused to meet him (Sibotshiwe),” said one diplomatic source. “He instead offered to send his PA to meet Sibotshiwe and in the end the whole thing collapsed.”
Tsvangirai is being privately assailed by some party officials who say he has sidelined loyal party cadres for the sleek PR of Sibotshiwe and an increasingly influential cabal of aides, financiers and advisers based in South Africa.
One MDC official said Tsvangirai was unlikely to have made the call to send Sibotshiwe, blaming it on the “South Africa group”.
“How can they send to a senior AU official someone junior like that (Sibotshiwe), and in the process marginalising MDC structures? Why couldn’t they send (Prof Elphas) Mukonoweshuro who is the foreign affairs spokesman? It is embarrassing because these people ('South Africa group') don’t even know the protocols of international politics. It boomeranged; the result was there was no meeting.”
Sibotshiwe, when reached by telephone on Friday, asked to be called back in 10 minutes. Subsequent phone calls were not answered.
A second MDC spokesman based in Johannesburg, Nqobizitha Mlilo, said only Sibotshiwe could give an explanation.
On Friday, Mbeki pushed ahead with efforts to broker an end to Zimbabwe's crisis by welcoming Ping at his Pretoria Office. Ping came after another meeting between Mbeki and the United Nations’ Zimbabwe trouble-shooter, Haile Menkerios, who was appointed recently.
The closed-door talks were being held ahead of a gathering of foreign ministers in the city of Durban, where Zimbabwe's post-election violence and efforts to bring about some kind of power-sharing deal were to top the agenda.
While Mbeki posed with Menkerios and then Ping at the start of their meetings, he was tight-lipped on what they would discuss.
While little fanfare has surrounded the get-together, it is the first between Ping and Mbeki since Mugabe's re-election in a one-man poll on June 27.
The ballot was widely denounced as a sham in the West after Tsvangirai boycotted the run-off following a wave of deadly attacks on his supporters.
Mbeki has been trying to mediate between the opposition and Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party but, having made little headway so far, has faced calls to be either axed from his role or at least to begin working in tandem with the AU.
"The MDC has made it clear an expanded (mediation) team provides the best opportunity for a negotiated solution to the Zimbabwe crisis," the news agency AFP reported a source close to Tsvangirai as saying.
"The situation in Zimbabwe is deteriorating on a daily basis and it is essential for the people's welfare that a transitional agreement is reached as soon as possible and we hope the outcome of Friday’s consultations will facilitate this."
The MDC and Zanu PF began preliminary talks last week aimed at establishing a framework for substantive negotiations.
Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe into second place in the first round of voting in March and does not recognise his old rival's re-election, has so far refused to put his name to a framework deal -- although his aides have hinted he will be ready to sign after the Ping-Mbeki talks.
Mbeki was tasked more than a year ago by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) to mediate between the MDC and Zanu PF, and was asked to push ahead with his efforts at a summit in April. The AU and UN have recently thrown their weight behind his mediation.
His Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was to give an update on the mediation efforts at Friday's meeting in Durban, with the South African government insistent that a resolution to the Zimbabwe crisis remain the sole preserve of SADC.
"Our view has always been, and I am stressing it, we are being diverted by a fake argument about the expansion of the SADC facilitation," Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters earlier this week.
"I don't believe that at this very crucial moment, adding new bodies, simply to sit in the same room, is what is required.”
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Labels: AU, DIPLOMACY, JEAN PING, MDC
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Tsvangirai told not to sign MoU
Ralph Mutema
Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:00:00 +0000
THE signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party did not take place yesterday as expected putting the much anticipated political settlement in Zimbabwe in jeopardy.
Reports coming out of Harare say the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai changed his mind at the last minute despite reassurances from his party’s negotiation team which had agreed on the content of the document together with the Zanu PF team.
Tsvangirai is said to have advised his team that he would not be signing the MoU under instruction from Jean Ping, African Union Commission Chairman.
This is the second time the MDC leader has backtracked on a previous party position citing instructions from Ping.
Two weeks ago Tsvangirai failed to show up for a meeting which President Mbeki had managed to arrange between the MDC leader and President Mugabe saying he had received instructions from Ping. The meeting had been convened at Tsvangirai’s request.
Last week representatives from Zanu PF, MDC-T and the MDC led by Professor Arthur Mutambara met in Pretoria and held talks which led to the drafting of the MoU. The understanding was that the MoU would be signed in Zimbabwe at the South African embassy yesterday. The content of the MoU was discussed and agreed by the three parties, according to sources.
Zanu PF was represented by the public service minister Nicholas Goche and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa while MDC-T was represented by Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma with Welshman Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga representing the break-away formation of the MDC.
The Pretoria meeting, which was chaired by South African local government minister Sydney Mufamadi on behalf of President Mbeki had led to the drafting of the MoU and was agreed that Tsvangirai, President Mugabe and Mutambara would sign the MoU so that talks can begin.
Sources within the ruling party say Tsvangirai’s latest snub may have been triggered by the United States’ criticism of President Thabo Mbeki’s government over their vote at the UN Security Council blocking sanctions against Zimbabwe.
A US representative at the Security Council, speaking after the vote, suggested that President Mbeki was out of touch with his own country and that the time was right for him to go.
President Mbeki will meet with Jean Ping on Friday to brief him about progress that is being made or not being made in the mediation process.
The MDC has called on the mediation team to be expanded to include representatives from the African Union. South Africa dismissed speculation that the team will be expanded to meet the MDC’s demands.
South Africa’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, Aziz Pahad, indicated that the team was not being expanded and the meeting President Mbeki and the AU Commission Chairman is meant to bring the Chairman up to date with events.
“Mr Ping is not coming to South Africa in an emergency situation. It is quite important that the Chairperson of the Commission of the AU is regularly briefed about the process,” said Pahad.
He continued: “Our view has always been, and I am stressing it, we are being diverted by a fake argument about the expansion of the SADC Facilitation - the Facilitation is not South Africa only.
“South Africa is conducting the Facilitation on behalf of SADC and therefore involves the Organ Chair, who, through the processes by which we work, have to brief the Chair of SADC; the Chair of SADC has to brief the Chair of the AU who has to brief all other members including the Peace and Security Council.”
Labels: AU, ELECTIONS, JEAN PING, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, MoU, ZANU-PF, ZIMBABWE
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AU shuns debate on Zim
From Itai Musengeyi in SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt
THE two-day African Union summit began here yesterday with Zimbabwe not on the agenda of the summit as had been wished by its detractors who predicted African leaders would put pressure on Harare following last Friday’s presidential run-off won by President Mugabe. Although speakers at the opening did mention Zimbabwe, their comments were not hostile but encouraged dialogue between the major political parties in the country.
At his swearing-in ceremony in Harare on Sunday just before he flew here, Cde Mugabe said Government was prepared for dialogue with the opposition MDC-T, but only if it came into the talks with its own agenda and not a Western-foisted stance.
AU chairman President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania said while the people of Zimbabwe should be congratulated on the just-ended election, the country needed assistance to move ahead because it was facing serious challenges.
The economic malaise bedevelling Zimbabwe has been a result of the British, American and European Union-imposed illegal sanctions that the West are threatening to deepen following Cde Mugabe’s landslide victory over their favoured MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
In his speech, AU Commission chairman Mr Jean Ping said Africa must help Zimbabwe’s parties to work together in the interest of their country to overcome the present challenges.
"I would like, here, to commend the efforts of the leaders of the region (Sadc) and their commitment to assist the Zimbabwean parties in the search for a lasting solution to the problems in that country," said Mr Ping.
Host President Hosni Mubarak made no direct mention of Zimbabwe although the Western media, which is openly anti-Harare, tried to spin a part of his speech that peace and security were of paramount importance on the continent to mean that it was directed at Zimbabwe.
The AU Peace and Security Council, which met on Sunday, also did not make Zimbabwe a matter for the body expressing worry on real security trouble spots on the continent such as Somalia.
The anti-Zimbabwe media had frantically predicted that the AU Peace and Security Council would discuss Zimbabwe and come up with a resolution.
Speculation was, however, rife that the summit would discuss Zimbabwe in the closed session. However, it has always been the AU tradition that certain matters are discussed behind closed doors where countries explain their situation vis-à-vis concerns that may have been raised by fellow member countries.
Details of the closed session or whether had it discussed Zimbabwe were not immediately available late last night.
When he wound up his campaign for the run-off President Mugabe made it clear he was prepared to face any leader at the summit over the elections because some of them had worse election records.
President Mugabe arrived here early yesterday morning. He was met at the Sharm el-Sheik Airport by Foreign Minister Cde Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, the Minister of Industry and International Trade Cde Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Egypt Cde Aaron Mabhoyi-Ncube, senior embassy and Egyptian government officials.
The President is being accompanied by the First Lady, Amai Grace Mugabe; the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Cde Patrick Chinamasa; and senior Government officials.
Amai Mugabe was yesterday expected to join her colleagues at a First Ladies’ Forum to discuss a number of issues including the HIV/Aids pandemic.
Labels: AU, ELECTIONS, JEAN PING, ZIMBABWE
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Herald Reporters
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday held talks with his South African counterpart, President Thabo Mbeki, at State House in Harare. It could not be established what the two leaders discussed as they did not field questions from journalists. A number of Cabinet ministers, among them Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa and Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Cde Nicholas Goche, who were the Zanu-PF negotiators in the South African-brokered talks with the opposition MDC last year, were also at State House. But the Minister of Information and Publicity, Cde Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, said he could not disclose the nature of the discussions.
"It’s good that President Mbeki came personally to locate what is happening here in Zimbabwe. But I cannot discuss the substance of the meeting . . . making the discussions public is the prerogative of the two heads of state," Cde Ndlovu said.
President Mbeki arrived at the Harare International Airport yesterday morning where he was met by President Mugabe, senior Government officials, service chiefs and diplomats before proceeding to State House.
The two leaders held closed-door talks for about three hours before President Mbeki visited the South African Ambassador’s residence in Highlands, where he met a fact-finding mission he sent earlier in the week.
The fact-finding mission is in the country to investigate alleged incidents of post-election violence.
President Mbeki returned to State House for a brief meeting with Cde Mugabe before departing for the airport, where he was seen off by the President, Defence Minister Cde Sydney Sekeramayi, Cde Goche, State Security Minister Cde Didymus Mutasa and service chiefs.
Sadc heads of state last year mandated South Africa to mediate in talks between the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition MDC-T and MDC that resulted in some agreements that led to the three parties co-sponsoring Constitutional Amendment Number 18 in Parliament and a number of electoral reforms in preparation for the March 29 harmonised elections.
African Union Commission chairman Mr Jean Ping and a Sadc Ministerial Committee of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security also visited Zimbabwe this week to assess the situation after the elections.
Mr Ping and the Sadc committee also met President Mugabe.
Labels: JEAN PING, SADC, ZIMBABWE
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Ping meets Mugabe
By George Chellah in Harare, Zimbabwe
Wednesday May 07, 2008 [04:00]
AFRICAN Union Commission chairman Jean Ping on Monday met President Robert Mugabe to discuss the Zimbabwean situation after the disputed March 29 elections. And Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) chairperson Noel Kututwa has urged the ruling ZANU-PF to accept the will of the people to enable the country to move beyond its political crisis.
President Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba on Monday evening told state-broadcaster that newly elected AU Commission chairperson met President Mugabe to receive advice on regional matters among other issues.
Charamba said Ping also exchanged notes with President Mugabe on the situation in Zimbabwe.
"He (Ping) met the President and they exchanged notes, not just on Zimbabwe. He also wanted to get the President's vision on the AU," he said.
Charamba, who is also Secretary for Information and Publicity, further said Ping also took the opportunity to get a briefing from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on the elections.
Meanwhile, Kututwa said since ZESN announced projections for the presidential election on March 31, 2008, its members, staff, management and leadership had been subject to a campaign of intimidation by the government.
"These projections clearly showed Morgan Tsvangirai secured more votes than Robert Gabriel Mugabe. In observing this and previous elections, ZESN has broken no Zimbabwean law and has conducted its electoral observation efforts in accordance with regional and international standards. As such, the organisation has been accredited by the relevant body for every election since inception 2000. For the 29 March 2008 harmonised elections, the Minister of Justice, Parliamentary and Legal Affairs approved ZESN accreditation of 11,808 observers and 8,667 observers were duly accredited by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)," Kutuwa said.
"Further, all ZESN observers received training and signed a code of conduct and which abide them to conduct themselves in a non-partisan manner. Despite this, some ZESN observers have been beaten, one had his home torched, some have been harassed and intimidated. The ZESN national director, Rindai Chipfunde-Vava was detained for 45 minutes at the Harare International Airport on the 15th of April 2008. ZESN's national offices were also raided by the police on 25 April 2008.
"Armed with a search warrant allowing them to look for subversive material, the police confiscated a number of ZESN's documents and took its programmes manager, Tsungai Kokerai, who was subsequently detained at Harare Central Police Station for six hours by the police for questioning. The home of ZESN's national director, was also raided by the police on the 25th of April."
Kututwa explained that he and Chipfunde-Vava were asked for three days running to make themselves available at Harare Central Police Station to answer questions and furnish the police with statements on a number of issues.
"ZESN's mission remains to promote democratic elections in Zimbabwe and this can only be done by helping to ensure that the country's political problems are resolved through the ballot box rather than by the barrel of the gun. We believe all of these efforts are intended to intimidate ZESN so that it will not observe future elections," Kututwa said. "ZESN will not be moved by these cynical actions on the part of the government and will continue to defend the right of Zimbabweans to vote, a right so dearly paid for in the struggle for the country's liberation."
He said it has now been one month since the elections and confidence in the ZEC has long since begun to wane.
"For the good of the nation, the government should accept the will of the people. This will enable the country to move beyond its political crisis and begin to address the economic and social problems facing the country," said Kututwa.
Labels: AU, JEAN PING, MUGABE
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