Tsvangirai met members of the team in Harare earlier today led by the Long Term Observer Coordinator Chirambo Kondwani.
Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka told journalists after the meeting that the Prime Minister took the opportunity to update the observer team on political developments in the country.
“The Prime Minister appreciated the early deployment of AU observers. He also gave them an update on the political situation in the country beginning with Constitutional Court ruling which has caused a lot of problems in the country. I will not get into details because it is still subjudice,” he said.
Tamborinyoka said Tsvangirai also delved into other issues to do with the resolution of the SADC extra ordinary summit, the reforms that have not been implemented and the frustrations around voter registration.
The 10-member African Union team, whose members are drawn from South Africa, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Nigeria and the Republic of South Sudan, arrived in Zimbabwe this week to assess prevailing conditions ahead of the elections.
Meanwhile the churches in the country have called on all parties to ensure that peace prevails in the run-up to the elections.
Speaking after meeting Tsvangirai in Harare today, the chairman of Heads of Christian Denominations, Goodwill Shana said that it was encouraging that all parties were singing from the same hymn on the issue of violence.
“The parties seem to be singing from the same hymn but what is important is what will happen on the ground. It’s one thing to preach peace but it’s another thing to ensure that peace prevails but so far we have had encouraging and positive feedback from all the political parties we have engaged,” Shana said.
“We don’t want a return to 2008 therefore we have started a programme called The Ecumenical Peace Observation Initiative in Zimbabwe which is a joint programme of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe,” he said.
This initiative according to Shana “seeks to observe the environment at this point in time and undergird efforts by other stakeholders to ensure that we have peaceful elections”.
“We came to see the prime minister around those issues. We have been to President Mugabe around the same issues and the other political parties as well. This is part of the unfolding programme that the church has embarked on,” Shana said.
He said the church was encouraged to note that violence appears to be sporadic and “hopefully it not gain momentum and the church is concerned that it doesn’t become a trend
Shana urged consensus on the issue of elections dates.
“We don’t want to appear to disparage our courts but the church is of the view that we have come this far by consensus, by dialogue and by engagement. It’s unfortunate if we have to engage other means to make progress. Perhaps that decision should have been made in other quarters, maybe through engagement rather than a decree. But we respect that decision and hopefully the principals will be able to give us a clearer consensual way forward,” he said.
Post published in: News