Zuma defends Mbeki’s failure

bate in the National Assembly.
“The success of President Mbeki’s facilitation largely depends on the political will of the Zimbabwean government and opposition political parties to take Zimbabwe out of this crisis,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
The Democratic Alliance, meanwhile, has described as “regrettable” the South African government’s lack of condemnation of the situation in Zimbabwe.
“Daily, thousands of Zimbabweans illegally enter South Africa in search of money and food in order to keep their families alive,” said DA foreign affairs spokesperson Douglas Gibson.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs should make it clear that they would not support a government that does this to its citizens,” he said.
The Inkatha Freedom Party said the talks were doomed to fail if ordinary Zimbabweans, Churches and the country’s business community are excluded from the negotiations.
National Constitutional Assembly chairman Dr Lovemore Madhuku recently dismissed Mbeki’s involvement as a ploy to buy more time for embattled President Robert Mugabe.
He said solutions to the crisis lay with Zimbabweans; putting faith in Mbeki was “a waste of time”.
Madhuku said Zimbabweans must ratchet up pressure on the 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader and his government by staging massive demonstrations in the coming months.
“We have solutions to our problems and these solutions come from Zimbabweans. Mbeki must never fool us. He is buying time for Mugabe and his government by promising us that he can help mediate on the crisis.
“All Mbeki wants is time for his friend (Mugabe). Mbeki does not want us to have demonstrations or put pressure on Mugabe. We have seen Mbeki before. What has he done for us? As Zimbabweans we must realise the power and means of escaping poverty and hunger lie within us,” said Madhuku. – Allan Muzhingi