PM reports back on diplomatic offensive

Tsvangirai told a news conference at his Strathaven home that he had met at least four SADC heads of State and told them that Mugabe was erecting more obstacles to a freee and fair poll and is clamping down on any sign of internal dissent.

Zimbabwe’s main ruling party, the Movement for Democratic Change, added its weight to the election build-up with a rally scheduled for Saturday, which police has banned, but the MDC threatens to defy.

Tsvangirai struck out at the “battering” Mugabe’s rule had imposed on the country, and warned that Zimbabwe risks sliding back to the 2008 election genocide. In the past week, Tsvangirai said he had held discussions with President Rupiah Banda of Zambia, President Armando Guebbuza of Mozambique, King Mswati 111 of Swaziland and Botswana President Ian Khama about the need for urgent action on Zimbabwe to ensure the security of persons and a peaceful environment in the country. “I will soon be meeting the facilitator, President Jacob Zuma, over the situation in the country,” Tsvangirai said. South Africa has voiced strong criticism against an early election that Mugabe wants in August, saying the election would be illegal.

“I have told these fellow leaders that the time for SADC to act and deliver is now,” Tsvangirai told reporters. “And we are all agreed that Zimbabwe should not be allowed to decelerate into an implosion. I have told the SADC leaders of the renewed siege mood in Zimbabwe, the arbitrary arrests, the crackdown on democratic forces in the country and the culture of impunity that is seriously threatening the health and the life of the inclusive government.

“I have told my fellow colleagues in the region that this country risks sliding back to the chaos of 2008; the chaos which the same regional leaders mitigated by nudging all the political players to form an inclusive government in the national interest. But today, the violence machinery has once again been unrolled in the countryside, the culture of impunity has worsened and the past eight weeks have seen an intensification of the crackdown on the democratic forces in the country.”

Mugabe, who celebrated his 87th birthday last month, has reportedly sent envoys to Namibia and South Africa, key members of the Southern African Development Community, to seek their acquiescence in his failure to follow SADC’s own rules governing elections in the region.

Diplomats said that to avoid a backlash Mugabe had sent to message to Namibia and South Africa, old allies from his “freedom struggle” days and sympathetic to his argument that he is a victim of racist detractors. Tsvangirai said Mugabe was no longer in charge of the country, and the military junta was once again running the show.”While I was away in the last four days, it appears the civilian authority is no longer in charge and dark and sinister forces have engaged in a hostile take-over of running the affairs of the country, with or without the blessing of some leaders of the civilian authority,” Tsvangirai said.

He said the junta was curtailing his party activities and other prodemocracy efforts. “Together with civic society and other democratic forces, we had planned to hold a major peace rally in Harare tomorrow to pray for peace in the country,” Tsvangirai said.

“We had duly notified the police as required by law. I was told yesterday that the police have refused to allow that peaceful rally to proceed, against the provisions of the law and the letter and spirit of the GPA. There has been an instruction from the Police Commissioner-General to effectively ban meetings when there is a Cabinet decision that no meetings should be banned.”

On Friday Harare magistrate, Mercy Chimbodza upheld a draconian police decision to stop an “MDC People’s Peace Rally” on Saturday at Glamis Arena, in Harare. Police say they cannot handle crowd control and would face operational challenges given that Zanu PF was holding a similar rally 500m away from the Glamis Arena.

Another application by the MDC for a rally at the Zimbabwe Grounds was turned down by the Harare South District police saying Zanu PF had booked the ground up to the end of the year. President Tsvangirai and the real change team were expected to address the rally. The rally is being held to call for an end to any form of violence. Tsvangirai urged SADC to “nip this tension in the bud,”otherwise the country could easily slide back to the dark days of 2008, a development that is not welcome to any Zimbabwean across the political divide.

“SADC, as the guarantors of this agreement, has to play a critical role in ensuring that we all respect the signatures that we appended to the GPA. We have to implement all the agreed issues and usher in political, economic and media reforms as stipulated in the GPA in order to enable the country to transit peacefully to a credible and legitimate government whilst SADC should monitor every step of this process.”