SA delegates push for more pressure on Zimbabwe

By Violet Gonda
20 July 2006

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), especially South Africa, were urged at a seminar in Pretoria on Wednesday to take more decisive action on Zimbabwe.

Sydney Masamvu, analyst at the International Crisis Group in Southern Africa said the delegates, who included South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister, diplomatic missions, NGOs' executive directors and human rights groups, converged to discuss the displacement of Zimbabwe.

He said there were various views on the approach to be taken to unlock the Zimbabwean crisis but there was general consensus that there should be continued isolation to pressure the Mugabe government to negotiate with its internal actors. They also urged the international community to fully assess what has been achieved by the targeted sanctions, as the crisis is worsening and there is criticism that not much has been achieved.

It’s reported political analysts were in agreement that there is growing frustration with the lacklustre attitude of neighbouring countries towards Zimbabwe, despite many of them receiving a flood of refugees fleeing the crisis.

ICG Director Peter Kagwanja told delegates President Mbeki’s quite diplomacy had failed to create favourable political, economic and social conditions.

Professor Adam Habib from the Human Sciences Research Council argued that conditions exist for South Africa to play a leading role in facilitating negotiations.

It’s reported that delegates like Kagwanja singled out Zimbabwe’s neighbour saying: "Continued engagement between Zimbabwe and South Africa means that South Africa is sacrificing its own foreign policy ideals, the very foundation of its own nationhood, and therefore I think that with or without the context of quiet diplomacy, South Africa now needs to stand up for the values that are at the heart of its own nationhood."

Masamvu said although the international and regional bodies can play a role, the question that was uppermost at the seminar was that in the final analysis South Africa and the West have done what they can do within their mandate but: “What are Zimbabweans doing in Zimbabwe to force the regime to the negotiating table? That is the million dollar question which we have to address.”