Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was scheduled to meet the Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila on Thursday, on the third leg of his five nation tour of SADC states.

Tsvangirai’s shuttle diplomacy is part of a strategy to get key SADC leaders fully appraised of the situation in the unity government, after his party disengaged from ZANU PF last week Friday.

Apart from the MDC leader’s whirlwind tour, high ranking party officials in Harare have initiated a daily programme of interacting with diplomats stationed in the capital, as part of the diplomatic offensive the party is now mounting to build regional and international pressure on Robert Mugabe.

An MDC official told us the exercise is to convince regional governments that Mugabe remains the biggest threat, not only to Zimbabwe, but to the whole region. On Wednesday, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa said his country was concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe and that the country ‘should not be allowed to slide back into instability.’ Zuma had met Tsvangirai in Cape Town.

SADC’s Troika on politics, defence and security co-operation is expected to convene a meeting next week Thursday to try to iron out the differences between Tsvangirai and Mugabe. This date was set following talks on Tuesday in Chimoi, Mozambique, between Tsvangirai and President Armando Guebuza, the current chair of the troika.

Mugabe has since last year failed to implement the power sharing deal he agreed with Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, leader of the other MDC formation.

The unity government remains shaky as a result of outstanding issues and non-compliance by Mugabe, that continue to impede the transitional government. ZANU PF and the MDC-M are also pushing for the three principals to the GPA to meet and discuss the issues, outside the realm of a full SADC summit or Troika meeting.

Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the Mutambara faction, said on Wednesday the three leaders were due to meet by the end of the week in crisis talks to resolve the current problems.

Sources in the MDC-T told us they doubted such a meeting will be held anytime soon because Tsvangirai has grown tired of ‘lies and promises ‘from Mugabe since the formation of the unity government.

‘The Prime Minister is mobilising the region to solve this crisis once and for all and he has been promised that the Troika will look into it. So there’s no way he will compromise that position by talking to Mugabe before the Troika meeting,’ a source said.

After Tsvangirai’s scheduled meeting Thursday with President Kabila, the MDC leader is expected to visit Botswana and Angola for talks with Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Ian Khama.

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