Government principals meet with Zuma

By Alex Bell
17 March 2010

South African President Jacob Zuma kick-started his three day visit to Zimbabwe on Wednesday by holding talks with the coalition government’s feuding leaders.

Zuma, the regional mediator tasked with breaking the political deadlock in Zimbabwe, held one-on-one talks with Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday morning. A break for lunch was followed by joint talks with all the leaders, including Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara. The details of the meetings have not been disclosed, but the principals to the unity government both expressed satisfaction with progress made.

Emerging from around two hours of talks held in Harare, Mugabe told journalists gathered that the discussions were going ‘very well’. He added: “We are very happy. There are no controversies.” Tsvangirai echoed the sentiments and said the talks were ‘going very well’.

Zuma’s visit comes as negotiations between the political parties in the fragile coalition have remained deadlocked over outstanding issues of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). The parties have been in fruitless talks since last November, and have previously required regional intervention to keep channels of negotiation open. But headway has been repeatedly blocked by ZANU PF’s refusal to respect the GPA. The party has instead vowed not to give the MDC, its ‘partner’ in the government, any concessions until international targeted sanctions have been removed.

These ‘shopping’ sanctions have been extended by both America and the European Union, and most recently Switzerland, all citing a lack of progress in implementing the GPA. The sanctions issue is now at the centre of the current deadlock between the parties in government, and it is Zuma who is now expected to somehow break this impasse.

Political analyst Professor John Makumbe said on Wednesday it was too premature for there to be hope that Zuma can make any headway, explaining that the South African President has already shown his allegiance to Mugabe. Zuma has been actively campaigning on Mugabe’s behalf for the sanctions to be dropped, in a move that has left observers angry. Zuma, who took over as mediator from former South African President Thabo Mbeki late last year, is under pressure at home to take a firmer hand with Mugabe than his predecessor. Mbeki’s policy of ‘quiet diplomacy’ towards Mugabe was a disaster for Zimbabwe, as the country spectacularly collapsed right under Mbeki’s nose. It was therefore hoped that Zuma would take a tougher stance with Mugabe, who he used to criticise before coming into power in South Africa.

Professor Makumbe told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that there is widespread disappointment that Zuma has instead “been acting like Mugabe’s pageboy, and singing Mugabe’s hymns from Mugabe’s hymnbook.” Makumbe added that Zuma will only apply pressure to Tsvangirai during this current round of talks, and not on Mugabe as many had hoped.

“I think Zuma will be rapping Tsvangirai on the knuckles for not doing more to have the sanctions removed,” Makumbe explained, adding: “Zuma should be pushing for the full implementation of the GPA, but that means pushing Mugabe and that won’t happen.”