ANC says Mugabe fears prosecution if he steps down

By Tichaona Sibanda
11 December 2008

African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe, claimed on Thursday that Robert Mugabe had ‘real fears’ of being hauled before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, if he were to relinquish power.

Mantashe made the claim in the coastal city of Durban during a breakfast meeting with journalists and editors. He revealed that the higher structures of the ANC had discussed Mugabe’s reasons for wanting to stay in power and that he was afraid of being arrested and charged with war crimes like former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Taylor, who was Liberia’s president from 1997 to 2003, was forced into exile in Nigeria before being extradited. He is currently being detained at the International Criminal Court detention facility in the Hague, awaiting trial for gross human rights violations.

‘The Hague has taken a number of African people. Mugabe can’t be given any guarantees for his safety in retirement,’ Mantashe said.

Mantashe also played down growing calls for Mugabe’s ouster, saying an invasion of Zimbabwe, or tougher sanctions to dislodge the ZANU PF leader, was not on the cards. The South African government preferred to deal with Zimbabwe ‘on a government-to-government level and on a party-to-party level’ and would rather ‘persuade’ Mugabe to retire than force him out of power.
Political analyst Isaac Dziya said the ANC could resolve the issue easily by granting Mugabe asylum in South Africa.

‘The Nigerians did it with Charles Taylor but he unfortunately decided to flee from that country and was caught before he succeeded. So if they could persuade him (Mugabe) to retire and offer him security guarantees for him and his family the better for the whole region,’ Dziya said.

Meanwhile a South African facilitation team, led by the former local government minister Sydney Mufamadi, is currently in Zimbabwe in an attempt to end the long-running political deadlock.

Discussions between Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and the MDC on forming a cabinet have been frozen for close to three months now, because of disagreements over the sharing of cabinet portfolios.
On Wednesday the South Africans met with negotiators and the leader of the MDC faction Arthur Mutambara, and are scheduled to meet with officials from MDC-T and ZANU PF in the next 48 hours.

The facilitation team includes the director in the presidency, Frank Chikane, and Thabo Mbeki’s legal adviser Mojanku Gumbi. They are examining ways of expediting the process to form a unity government. Negotiators from all parties have so far agreed on the wording of constitutional amendment no 19. The draft now awaits the consent of the party principals before it is gazetted and sent to Parliament.

The Bill gives legal effect to the political power-sharing pact and provides for the appointment of Tsvangirai as prime minister and Mutambara deputy prime minister in a government of national unity.

However the MDC-T, which holds the most seats in Parliament and
could very easily block passage of Amendment 19, has threatened not to vote for the Bill if outstanding issues of the inclusive government agreement were not resolved. Among the sticking issues are the allocations of ministerial portfolios, the appointment of provincial governors and the constitution, and the composition of the National Security Council, among others.