Talks stalled over Biti boycott

By Tichaona Sibanda
23 November 2007

It has emerged that MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti walked out of the SADC sponsored talks three weeks ago and has been refusing to take part in the negotiations unless Zanu-PF ends its orgy of violence against the opposition.

A highly placed source in the MDC told Newsreel on Friday that Biti walked out and gave the Zanu-PF negotiators an ultimatum - that he would only come back when hostilities stopped. The source said the MDC was on the verge of pulling out of the talks completely, forcing Mbeki to summon Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara to Pretoria last week to discuss the situation.

‘There has been no progress in the last three weeks and our secretary-general was totally dissatisfied with the excuses he had been getting from Zanu-PF until he decided to act. This is why you saw President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa becoming directly involved when he flew into the country yesterday (Thursday),’ the source said.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai hinted about the problems when he revealed in Kampala, Uganda on Wednesday that the talks had stalled. It’s now been reported that Mbeki got an undertaking from both parties Thursday, that they would resume talks as soon as it was possible.

The issue of violence was discussed at length in Mbeki’s meetings with Robert Mugabe and the two factions of the MDC and the MDC gave him a dossier of cases involving violence against its members.

Retired army colonel Bernard Matongo said the MDC should not return to the talks without an undertaking from Zanu-PF that they would stop the violence.

‘In a war situation whenever there are talks, hostilities stop. So this shouldn’t be a problem for Zanu-PF to stop their state sponsored violence against the opposition because they are not at war with anyone,’ Matongo said.

According to Matongo the regime is in denial about the violence and the only way the MDC should go for elections is if SADC sent monitors six months before an election. He explained that the MDC should demand that Mugabe pushes back the elections by six months, to provide a transitional period to implement any agreements that arise from the talks.