Mbeki led mediation “talks” to resume

By Violet Gonda
4 July 2007

The SADC led talks on Zimbabwe are expected to resume this week. South African President Thabo Mbeki is believed to have briefed SADC leaders on the progress so far, in behind closed door meetings on the sidelines of the just ended African Union summit in Accra Ghana.

Journalist Andy Meldrum said Mbeki has been trying to keep the details of the negotiations out of the media as much as possible. He said: “To a certain extent I can understand the reasoning of that because you can’t have a good negotiation going on and have whatever you say becoming headlines in the newspapers the next day. But I do think at a certain point you also have to have transparency, so that people understand what the points are and what they are trying to achieve.”

The talks were adjourned late last month after both ZANU PF and MDC finally agreed on the agenda. There had been much disagreement on the political parties’ demands on what should happen to ensure free and fair elections. Elections are expected next year but critics are not holding out much faith in the SADC initiative as there seems to be a lack of political will on the part of the regime, which has been dragging it’s feet to the negotiating table.

Meldrum says the hard work is now to begin. “Although South Africa has managed to get both sides to the table, to sit around the same table, but really the most important thing is for South Africa to realize what are the conditions? What needs to be established to have free and fair elections and then to try and get the kind of reforms from the government, from Mugabe, needed to have free and fair elections. That is going to be very, very difficult indeed.”

Basildon Peta, another journalist who has been following the events in South Africa, said recently; “Yes they have agreed on the agenda, now it comes to the substance and if you look at the positions of the two parties, their differences are like the distance between the North and South Poles so it is going to be difficult to get agreements in the end.”

Some observers say that SADC leaders would prefer an outcome that is led by a reformed ZANU PF, containing certain elements from the opposition, and they have also expressed skepticism over whether Mbeki is really interested in establishing conditions for free and fair elections. There are suggestions that he is more concerned about a whitewash of the situation for Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabwean civic groups are also worried that the process only involves political parties. They are calling for a transparent deal and to at least be consulted on the issues.