MDC gets support from 40 African leaders

By Tichaona Sibanda
1 July 2008

MDC Vice-President Thokozani Khupe said African leaders are aware there is a ‘big problem’ in Zimbabwe that urgently needs to be dealt with before it’s too late.

Speaking to Newsreel from Johannesburg, on her way back home from the AU summit in Egypt, Khupe said 40 African leaders supported the MDC victory in the March elections. Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he won outright against Robert Mugabe, but was denied victory by election officials who manipulated the figures. The MDC also wrestled control of parliament after winning 100 seats, while 10 others went to the MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara. One went to an independent and Zanu-PF got 99 seats. Of course it did take government 5 weeks to release the figures so the Zanu PF loss could have been even greater.

‘Everyone is aware that Zimbabwe is burning, that Zimbabwe is on fire and that it is important to save it before it is destroyed completely,’ Khupe said.

The MDC vice-president was leading a five-member party delegation on a lobbying expedition to the AU summit. The delegation was able to meet at least 40 Heads of State who sympathised with the MDC.

‘We spoke to the African leaders who understood our problem. We took joy from the fact that during a foreign ministers’ conference, a lot of delegates wanted the Zimbabwe issue resolved urgently. This was after some countries unsuccessfully tried to block the issue from being put on the agenda,’ Khupe added.

South Africa, Gabon and Eritrea had lobbied other foreign ministers to stop them discussing the crisis, while recommending that the crisis should only be dealt with by the SADC bloc.

‘What surprised us was that so many foreign ministers stood up and demanded that the Zimbabwe issue be dealt with once and for all. They felt the crisis had dragged on for a long time and that it was time African leaders came up with a solution,’ she said.

The MDC is pushing the AU to appoint an envoy who will help Thabo Mbeki mediate talks between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe to create a transitional government and prepare for fresh elections. The MDC beat Mugabe’s Zanu-PF in municipal, district council and parliamentary elections in March, the first time the regime hasn’t held a majority in those branches of government since independence in 1980.

But even though Mugabe might have come under pressure behind close doors, the AU leaders were very careful not to criticise him publicly. The international community, and Zimbabweans, have been extremely disappointed by this approach. The credibility of Africa is clearly on the line here and if the leaders do not take a much firmer approach to Robert Mugabe, the entire Southern African region will be negatively affected.