Secret unity talks

BY ITAI DZAMARA
HARARE
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is trying to persuade MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to form a government of national unity with Simba Makoni, leader of a breakaway Zanu (PF) faction, who is contesting the presidential election as an independent.
Sources in Harare told The Zimbabwean this week that Mbeki believes that his plan, said to be backed by some western countries, would solve Zimbabwe’s political crisis.
Insiders in the MDC and Makoni’s backers confirmed that Mbeki’s emissaries, together with western diplomats, have been lobbying the two presidential candidates to consider forming a government of national unity after the elections.
Sources say Mbeki recently sent a team to assess the situation in Zimbabwe privately, with a specific mandate to gauge the electorate in order to predict what is likely to emerge from the presidential election.
“The team reported to him that from indications so far, Makoni’s entry into the race is set to have a serious effect on Mugabe’s power base in Zanu (PF), meaning he will take a substantive number of votes from his former boss. At the same time he is expected to take votes from Tsvangirai, but at a lower level,” a reliable source said this week.
“Given that scenario, it then becomes likely that there will be need for a rerun involving Makoni and Tsvangirai with, of course, the likelihood of Mugabe using crooked means to avoid such an embarrassing defeat.”
The sources say the South Africans are eager to have a “clear and harmonious political settlement in Zimbabwe” by June in order to safeguard their interests in hosting the 2010 soccer World Cup.
“It is for the sake of the World Cup that Mbeki and his advisors believe it is very necessary to avoid the mere re-branding of the Zimbabwean political crisis, while the impasse continues. There are fears that Zanu (PF), either under Makoni and without Mugabe in the picture or still in its fragmented form, would not accept an exclusively MDC government – thereby perpetuating the impasse. The same could be said about whether the opposition would simply accept and obey Makoni as president, in the event that he won the poll,” said a source privy to the goings-on in Mbeki’s team.
Efforts to obtain comment from Mbeki’s office failed.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa declined to comment saying, “we are busy preparing for elections and ready to govern as we inch closer to victory.”
Makoni’s spokesman Godfrey Chanetsa evaded the matter but said the former minister was committed to working with all Zimbabweans “when he wins the elections”.