Zuma to be briefed on GPA talks by facilitation team

By Tichaona Sibanda
3 December 2009

South Africa will launch new efforts to push ZANU PF and the MDC to finalize terms signed by all the three parties in the Global Political Agreement, according to a source in Johannesburg.

This follows a visit to Harare by a South African facilitation team that met the three principals and the six negotiators from ZANU PF and the MDC. The team, which was in Harare since Sunday, flew back home on Tuesday to brief President Jacob Zuma, SADC’s new facilitator on Zimbabwe. The reports that stated that Zuma himself would be flying to Harare, turned out to be inaccurate.

The source told SW Radio Africa that the South African government is expected to step up its diplomatic push to urge the parties to the GPA to finalize their long-drawn talks.

‘Pushing for the full implementation of the GPA is an absolute priority of SADC and the present stalemate by the parties in Zimbabwe only serves to alienate the country from the region and the international world,’ the source told us.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti highlighted this in his budget speech on Wednesday. He said the political impasse caused by the delays in finalising the talks was derailing the growth of the economy.

Charles Nqakula, Zuma’s political advisor and leader of the facilitation team, told journalists in South Africa that his team held ‘candid and positive’ talks in Harare with Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.

Zuma is on record saying Western aid won’t be forthcoming until the outstanding issues were resolved. His ruling African National Congress (ANC) in August said it expected him to curb ‘deviant behaviour’ in Mugabe camp ahead.

During his two-day visit to Harare in August, Zuma said the inclusive government had the responsibility to fully implement the GPA and thus create confidence in the process.

The facilitation team reportedly told the three principals in Harare that Zuma was determined to facilitate a truly comprehensive unity deal in Zimbabwe.

Direct negotiations between ZANU PF and the MDC, mediated by South Africa and centred on the non-compliance of the GPA, were held on Monday and Tuesday in Harare. But there has been no public sign from the South Africans that Mugabe has or will agree to implement the remaining issues in the GPA.

Reports now say that President Zuma will be due in Harare over the weekend for talks with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara on the sticking points.

Political commentator Sox Chikohwero said we are beginning to see a departure from the quiet diplomacy practiced by the former mediator Thabo Mbeki.

‘As mediator Mbeki was reluctant to carry out checks and balances of the GPA. But Zuma has been on this job for less than a month and already we’ve seen a lot of movement on Zimbabwe from his camp. This shows us he has the muscles to push these two sides to a compromise for the sake of the country,’ Chikohwero said.