SOUTH AFRICAN president Jacob Zuma has left Zimbabwe after mediating between the leaders of the country’s transitional government, saying the partners had agreed to speed up the implementation of their powersharing deal.
Mr Zuma spent two days in the troubled southern African country last week, holding talks after Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai asked him early this month for help in overcoming obstacles blocking the implementation of the deal in full.
Mr Zuma is chairperson of the Southern African Development Union (SADC), the regional body that helped to broker the power-sharing deal signed last February. Next month, the position will be taken up by Angola’s president.
Both MDC parties claim President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party are not fully adhering to the terms of the deal, which, aside from endangering the transitional government, has prompted potential western foreign donors to shy away from giving it direct aid.
The MDC says its members, including parliamentarians, continue to be harassed by security forces loyal to the 85-year-old president, and they dispute Mr Mugabe’s unilateral appointment of senior Zanu-PF members as the reserve bank governor and the attorney general.
Reserve bank governor Gideon Gono’s policies are blamed for much of Zimbabwe’s economic collapse, while attorney general Johannes Tomana is believed to be behind the ongoing harassment of the MDC supporters.
“The parties are in agreement on the need to speed up the implementation and find solutions to the current points of disagreement,” Mr Zuma said after meeting each of the transitional government leaders on Friday.
After noting the benchmarks and conditions put forward by donors for their re-engagement with Zimbabwe, Mr Zuma added: “The inclusive government also has a responsibility to fully implement the and thus create confidence in the process.”
According to South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper yesterday, Mr Zuma took a far tougher line when dealing with Mr Mugabe than the one favoured by his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki.
MDC sources revealed that Mr Zuma told Mr Mugabe the SADC was not impressed with the delaying tactics the veteran leader was using when it came to implementing the outstanding elements of the Global Political Agreement.
The former opposition party indicated that Mr Tsvangirai was happy with the manner in which Mr Zuma dealt with the mediation process, saying he had been very fair with everyone during the talks.
The MDC leader’s relationship with Mr Zuma appears to be starkly different to the one he had with Mr Mbeki, who was the official SADC mediator in the crisis talks brokered last year.