Diplomats said South Africa was beginning to acknowledge that ordinary people in Zimbabwe need help to depose their leader. Amid grinding poverty, political and military rulers in Zimbabwe have enriched themselves at the expense of their countrymen. And this cabal is threatening to disrespect the wishes of the people if any other leader other than Mugabe is elected. Those who have tried to fight for liberation have been beaten up or detained.
In recent weeks, analysts say, the JOC has effectively vetoed government initiatives, including agreement to implement the outstanding 24 issues in the global political agreement that gave birth to the GNU, ordering arrests of senior MDC officials and banning MDC meetings in apparent breach of Cabinet directives.
They point to the arrest of minister of State in the PM's office Jameson Timba and threats made on the person of Finance minister Tendai Biti by war veterans, who barricaded him his office threatening to manhandle him over payouts and for defying Mugabe.
It is alleged that the JOC has also shown open disdain for the MDC factions in the coalition. A military brigadier general has said the PM was a present danger to national security and cannot be allowed to take over power.
Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba wrote in a weekly column in the local daily Herald, that "brigadier general Douglas Nyikayaramba was a general with an army," suggesting he had full backing of securocrats and that he spoke on behalf of the JOC. This “fifth column,” according to political analyst Ibbo Mandaza is hell-bent on frustrating the MDC factions into quitting the GNU.
“To put it simply, there is a fifth column within the Zimbabwean state, purporting both to represent the ‘securocrats’ who are opposed to the MDC and its involvement in the GNU and reflect the mainstream Zanu PF thinking,” Mandaza said.
Diplomatic sources say President Jacob Zuma's facilitation team has apparently been instructed to depart from diplomatic parlance and secrecy to level the unusual broadside on Mugabe and the JOC's escalating repression.
In the process, Zuma has placed himself at odds with his predecessor, President Thabo Mbeki, who pathetically publicly embraced Mugabe in a futile effort to end a wave of violence in advance of the 2008 elections.
Our source said South Africa was committed to diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, in which supporters of Mugabe have beaten and intimidated opposition-party supporters.
But he also said ordinary people were not bound by the diplomacy of South Africa and other nations.
Zanu PF spindoctor Prof Jonathan Moyo has complained that President Zuma was taking sides with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party. Analysts say Zuma has been even handed and handled the mediation without bias, but with a firm hand that threatens Mugabe's hold on power. It is the endgame for Zanu PF, analysts say.
"We respect President Zuma's mediation, however, we have also said we take strong exception to the behaviour of at least one member of his facilitation team Lindiwe Zulu on the basis of comments she is making publicly, which comments show exceeding bias such that even partisan people will have problems with some of these comments," Moyo said.
Zulu has opened up about the delicate mediation in Zimbabwe, and pointed out that Zanu PF was refusing to share power. She has insisted on security sector reforms that have shaken Zanu PF to the core. And that includes a plan to retire the partisan chief of police and the head of the army. Tsvangirai has said the securocrats should take off their uniforms and square off with him in the political arena.
And a recent rally in Gweru, Tsvangirai told his supporters that the people will have to end this. He said the people had the power and capacity to end the tyranny that has oppressed them for years.
He said it was a lesson of history that people power can topple tyrants "and I am confident that you have the capacity to do so," Tsvangirai said.
Asked whether the remarks were directed at Mugabe, he replied: "Everybody knows who I am talking about."
Zuma's insistence on full implementation of the GPA and the election roadmap and by implication Mugabe's ouster has been rejected by his allies in SADC, who have urged a softer approach to the crisis and solidarity among Zimbabwe's neighbors in southern Africa.
Zulu has defiantly told Zanu PF that President Zuma is not bothered with statements made outside the mediation process and will not be bothered by the ranting of Zanu PF officials. Zulu has said the mediation team will be guided by the position taken at the talks.
A Southern African diplomat said: "Lindiwe Zulu is no doubt espousing President Zuma's view. Mr. Zuma has explained his position that he wants the GPA fully implemented and the roadmap followed. He doesn't want to see another 2008," he said of the internationally condemned 2008 disputed president election that saw Mugabe the election loser remain in office.
"President Zuma's mediation is clearly in contrast with the pronouncements and show of friendship toward the Zimbabwean leader by Mr. Mbeki," the diplomat said.
Asked how he viewed Zuma's robustness in handling Zimbabwe's convoluted mediation, the diplomat said, "Mr. Zuma has always been his own man and at times a bit of a loose cannon."
Reports of a feud between Zuma and Mugabe -two of the continent's best-known leaders of liberation movements against white domination -have long been whispered.
An aide of PM Tsvangirai who has sat through a recent meeting between Zuma and Tsvangirai at his rural home in KwaZulu Natal said for Zuma, Mugabe represents a type of African independence leader who fought successfully for independence, then drifted toward tyranny by clinging to power.
"He (Zuma) thinks Mugabe now despises the very people who put him in power, and he think it is his privilege to be there for eternity," said the PM's aide.
After the recent meeting between Tsvangirai and Zuma, the senior aide suggested that Zulu was speaking with Zuma's blessing.
"She is free to say what everybody feels. She is President Zuma's foreign policy advisor. Do not underestimate how tough Zuma is in private talks with Mugabe," the official told The Zimbabwean
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