Zuma to hold meetings with Zimbabwe principals Thursday evening

By Violet Gonda
26 August 2009

Jacob Zuma makes his first visit to Zimbabwe as South African President on Thursday, to meet with the partners in inclusive government. The outgoing SADC chair is expected to hold separate meetings with the three principals and then attend a banquet at State House late Thursday. Zuma is also in the country to open the Harare Agricultural Show on Friday.

The South African President’s visit follows concerns raised by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai about the slow pace of reforms and delays in implementing the Global Political Agreement by ZANU PF, especially over the issue of the appointment of the Reserve Bank Governor and the Attorney General.

Government sources said the South African President is going to hold his first meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, to see if there is corroboration on the ‘complaints’ made by Tsvangirai. The Prime Minister’s spokesperson, James Maridadi, said Zuma was expected to meet Tsvangirai at 7:30pm and then hold a meeting with all the principals after the separate meeting.

However other sources said Zuma will only decide if there is a necessity to hold a joint meeting with the principals, after he has had a solo meeting with Robert Mugabe.

Insiders say Mugabe was extremely annoyed that the MDC appealed to SADC to break the political deadlock, as he insists on solving the ‘toxic issues’ internally. It’s believed that Mugabe is now using the fact that the MDC have appealed to SADC as a further excuse to delay dealing with the outstanding issues. An MDC minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “Although the principals had resolved the other outstanding issues regarding the swearing in of governors and Deputy Minister Roy Bennett, Mugabe is behaving like a child and is deliberately delaying the implementation because he is now saying ‘let’s see what SADC will do’. It is clear that SADC will not do anything because nobody in SADC has the guts to tell Mugabe what to do.”

However, much hope is being placed on Zuma taking a hard-line stance on Mugabe, but critics are sceptical, especially as his term as SADC chair expires in less than two weeks. The new chair will be President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila. Because of this, analysts believe nothing significant will come out of SADC because Kabila views Mugabe as a father figure and is indebted to him for his support during Congo’s ‘war’.