Mbeki tells press Zimbabwe missed its chance to solve crisis

By Tererai Karimakwenda
06 February 2006

South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki defended his controversial policy of “quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe this Sunday when he told SABC television that Zimbabwe missed a chance to resolve its political crisis two years ago. Mbeki claimed secret talks to agree on a new constitution had formed the basis of his expectations for a political breakthrough, but they had failed to produce results. He said both Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic Change had signed a draft constitution but did not explain why the process had failed. He simply said: “…new problems arose among themselves.”

Priscilla Misihairambwi Mushonga, who was the MDC shadow foreign minister in 2004, told us the process ended because ZANU-PF pulled out of the negotiations. She said the ruling party had chosen to change parts of the constitution to suit them, through amendments, rather than bring in an entirely new constitution. Misihairambwi explained that MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube and ZANU-PF’s justice minister Patrick Chinamasa had agreed on a draft in principle, but ZANU-PF pulled out before the MDC top leaders and the National Executive had approved it. This contradicts Mbeki’s comments to SABC that he had received a copy initialed by Mugabe and the MDC.

The question then arises whether Mbeki is protecting Mugabe despite knowing that the ruling party withdrew from these negotiations? Or did he simply omit this information from his SABC comments because it was not necessary?

As for the split in the opposition, Mbeki said: "They asked us to assist, to mend relations among themselves. It didn't work. We tried to intervene, but I think the rupture had gone too far." Misihairambwi said it was not the MDC directly that had approached Mbeki. She explained that it was “friends of the MDC” that felt the South African leader was better qualified to mediate between the 2 factions because of his history with the party. They also did not want ZANU-PF to use the split as an excuse to claim there was confusion in the opposition and therefore no-one to negotiate with.