She said the former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo who was appointed as head of the African Union election observer team to Zimbabwe will only come into the country if the Zimbabwean government allows him.
Speaking to the media at the Harare International Airport soon after her arrival Dlamini-Zuma said it was up to the Zimbabwean government as the hosts to allow him in.
“I think he will come if he is allowed. They allowed me to come,” she said.
“We are here as the AU Commission. As you know our team has been here for quite some time now and our commissioner for political affairs arrived yesterday,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
She said she would meet with all players in the electoral process.
“We are here just to talk to a number of people around the elections, the electoral commission, candidates just to see how things are before the actual election day.
“We have had a long observer team. We have two types of observers, long and short. The long term observers have been here and they have been across the country. They have been sending us reports so we are fairly informed but we felt it’s important to come and see and talk to people ourselves just before the elections,” she said.
AU Commissioner Aisha Abdullahi arrived in Zimbabwe on Tuesday. She had said Obasanjo would arrive together with Dlamini-Zuma.
The AU team will be in the country until August 2 to observe the conduct of the elections.
The Pan African Forum recently slammed the decision to name Obasanjo as head of the AU election team to Zimbabwe accusing him of bias.
The forum said Obasanjo could not be an impartial observer because he has in the past called for President Robert Mugabe’s resignation.
The AU’s mission has 60 observers representing electoral bodies from different countries, human rights organisations, Pan-African Parliament and civil society organizations.
Post published in: News