WOZA delivers petition for Thabo Mbeki

By Violet Gonda
25 June 2007

The pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise held a peaceful demonstration at the South African embassy in Harare on Monday to “press for a genuine agenda to the South African mediated-talks.” The activists are calling for a more inclusive negotiation process that addresses socio- economic issues.

Coordinator Jenni Williams said about 200 members managed to hand over a petition for South African President Thabo Mbeki, at the embassy. She said there were no arrests or the usual disturbances by the police, who were caught by surprise.

WOZA has held similar demonstrations in Bulawayo and Insiza calling for the inclusion of all stakeholders in the SADC initiative. So far only the main political parties have met South African officials.

Several civic bodies such as WOZA and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) have criticized the way the negotiations are being conducted.

Last week NCA chairman Dr. Lovemore Madhuku said civic society is not happy because it is not being informed adequately on the progress, and that the MDC is not being open to its colleagues in the Save Zimbabwe Campaign. He said: “The opposition would want at given times, and when it becomes convenient to itself, to remain as an opposition political party and then at other times it wants to work as a pro-democracy movement. These are still complications.”

This is one of the reasons that WOZA says it gathered at the South African Embassy “to highlight the unfairness of talks that only involve politicians who will be not be addressing issues of social justice.”

The group held placards and posters written: ‘All Zimbabweans have views - lets all talk about talks” and ‘politicians - don’t cut deals in our name.’

Williams also admitted that there is still a lot of work to be done by civic society and the grassroots movement, to come up with a common agenda and message.