SADC must set roadmap for polls: Tsvangirai

The SADC, alongside the African Union, is the guarantor of the 2008 political agreement between Mugabe and Tsvangirai that paved the way for the unity government. Although that has been able to stabilise the economy to a certain extent, it remains threatened by the refusal of Zanu (PF) to implement the agreement fully and to share power in any meaningful way. The MDC urges the immediate convening of a SADC summit to discuss the road map to an election and guarantees to the legitimacy of that election,” said Tsvangirai after a meeting of MDC leaders to review progress of the coalition government.

The two men have also clashed over Mugabes refusal to rescind his unilateral decision to appoint two of his top allies as attorney general and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, while the veteran leader has also refused to appoint members of Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambaras MDC formations as provincial governors.

Mugabe insists he will not meet his commitments under the power-sharing agreement that is know as the global political agreement (GPA) until Tsvangirai calls on Western governments to lift visa and financial sanctions against him and top officials of his party.

South African President Jacob Zuma, the SADCs mediator on Zimbabwe, is said to be waiting for Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara to meet to review a report on the power-sharing dispute prepared by their negotiators before he visits Harare to discuss ways to break the impasse.

Meanwhile, Tsvangirai also called for transparency in the mining of diamonds at Zimbabwes Marange diamond field also known as Chiadzwa.

“The party notes with concern the lack of transparency and due process in the handling of diamonds at Chiadzwa and in the granting of concessions and mining rights in the same,” said Tsvangirai, whose party holds the deputy minister of mines post in government.

Top Mugabe loyalist Obert Mpofu is Minister of Mines.

Tsvangirai called on the two joint venture firms formed by the governments Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and some private investors to comply with the countrys laws, adding that government should step up efforts to ensure mining complied with requirements of the Kimberley Process, the world diamond industry watchdog.

“The Zimbabwean government must speed up compliance with the Kimberly Process and those concerned must equally speed up the process of certification, he said.

Marange is one of the worlds most controversial diamond fields with reports that soldiers sent to guard the claims after the government took over the field in October 2006 from London-based Africa Consolidated Resources that owned the deposits committed gross human rights abuses against illegal miners who had descended on the field.

Some of the directors are known to have close ties with Zimbabwes military establishment that is accused of stealing millions of dollars worth of diamonds from Marange and offloading them onto the foreign black market for precious stones.