Mbeki’s Failed Mission

The SADC troika, chaired by Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, was said to be frantically moving to call an extra-ordinary congress to deal specifically with Mugabe’s intransigence.
President Mugabe remained defiant after a visit by Mbeki to opposition calls for a change in the election timetable and the introduction of a new constitution before the election.
By refusing to accede to opposition demands, Mugabe effectively slammed the door on any prospect of a talks breakthrough between the ruling party and the opposition.
Mbeki had come to Harare hoping to persuade Mugabe to sit down with the opposition leaders and compromise on the electoral dates and constitutional logjam. But Mugabe said the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would have to recognize his clumsily stolen 2002 re-election and then call off targeted sanctions against him and his cronies before he would speak with opposition leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
Mbeki met with Mugabe at State House for almost four hours, then later with Tsvangirai and Mutambara at the residence of South African ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mlungisi Makhalima. Mbeki was accompanied by his top aides, South African Local Government minister Sydney Mufamadi, Director-General in the Presidency Reverend Frank Chikane, and his legal advisor Mujanku Gumbi.
The Zimbabwean heard that Zanu (PF) negotiators Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, were with Mugabe when he met Mbeki while the MDC delegates to the talks, Prof Welshman Ncube and his opposite number Tendai Biti were also at Makhalima’s residence although they were not allowed into meetings held between Mbeki, Mutambara and Tsvangirai. Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Lovemore Moyo, both deputy secretary-generals of the two MDC wings were also present.
Mbeki told reporters after the meetings that he was optimistic.
We came to give a report to President Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai as well as Arthur Mutambara on how far we have gone (with the talks). We have listened to the leaders. We are going back to continue that process. It’s work in progress and very good progress.
Mbeki said he did not doubt the commitment on the part of the Zimbabwe government to solve problems the country is facing.
But analysts were skeptical and said the talks had now effectively collapsed.
It’s the end of the road, political analyst John Makumbe said. The master of deception, Zanu (PF), is leading the MDC up the garden path. It stands to reason that all the MDC and Zanu (PF) have agreed upon through the mediation talks is little more than efforts to hoodwink SADC.
Tsvangirai’s MDC said the meetings were still deadlocked over Mugabe’s refusal to postpone the election to June from March and introducing a new constitution before the poll. Mugabe favours keeping the vote on schedule, with a promise to implement the new constitution soon afterward. The opposition is demanding that the constitution, with its new freedoms, be implemented before any national vote.
Having an election would just be a farce if they happen in March, said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the wing of the opposition party led by Tsvangirai.
Mutambara also expressed the same position, issuing a statement saying his MDC was ready for a roundtable with Mugabe without conditions.
Mugabe reportedly told Mbeki: Do they recognize me? If they do, well, it means they have to start acting like it.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of political and economic chaos, caused in large part by Mugabe’s increasingly autocratic rule and by his indigenisation policies.