South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Zimbabwe on 18 June and held meetings with both parties.
According to senior members of both ZANU (PF) and MDC, the only point of contention in setting up a GNU was who would assume overall leadership. Mugabe’s contempt for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who polled more support than Mugabe in the first round of presidential voting, is common knowledge.
A ZANU (PF) source said Mbeki spoke of the advantages of a GNU in separate meetings with both parties, while also calling for the cessation of hostilities.
With the 27 June presidential run-off imminent, Tanzanian foreign minister Bernard Membe reportedly said on 19 June: According to SADC, there are fears that there will be no free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, due to the prevailing political and economic situation in that country.
SADC, which has given previous Zimbabwean elections a clean bill of health despite the misgivings of other observer missions, said it would increase the number of its observers to 400, but according to Zambian Foreign Affairs minister Kabinga Pande, only 210 were on the ground by 19 June.
The post-election violence since the 29 March poll is leading to a growing number of calls for the run-off election to be cancelled in favour of a negotiated settlement.
As ZANU (PF), we feel that President Mugabe should be the leader of such a formation (GNU), given his history as a founder-leader. Making him a subordinate of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, would be disrespectful. An acceptable solution would be the Kenyan compromises, whereby the head of state would remain in power while the position of prime minister can be created for Tsvangirai, a ZANU (PF) source told IRIN.
ZANU (PF) officials, on condition of anonymity, said threats of war, murder, abduction and mass arrests of the opposition leadership and party members were designed to break their spirits and make them very eager to form a GNU.
When Biti was arrested, he had just attended a meeting with his counterparts in ZANU (PF) on a possible GNU. ZANU (PF) is using all tactics in the book to ensure that Mugabe wins the run-off, which would give him moral authority to form a GNU.
The MDC official said Biti and eight other MDC legislators on the government’s wanted list could be used as bargaining chips in the make-up of the GNU. – IRIN
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