Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Snubs Mbeki
July 6, 2008

In a day of high drama on the Zimbabwe front, MDC leader Morgan Tsvirangirai snubbed a meeting between him, President Thabo Mbeki and Robert Mugabe - and a British newspaper has posted a film on its website showing voters being forced to vote for Mugabe.

What was anticipated to be a major breakthrough in the Zimbabwean crisis - a face-to-face meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai - collapsed yesterday when the MDC leader failed to arrive.

And a Zimbabwe prison officer used a hidden camera given to him by The Guardian to film how he and his colleagues were forced to vote for Mugabe. The newspaper said in the film and accompanying stories that the officer, Shepherd Yuda, fled Zimbabwe on Friday and was now with his family in an undisclosed location.

Meanwhile Mbeki flew to Harare yesterday after spending the past five days setting up the meeting, which he was to chair. He had secured agreements from Mugabe and Tsvangarai that they would attend what was going to be a first step towards reaching a negotiated political settlement for Zimbabwe.

After arriving in Harare, Mbeki held talks with Mugabe at State House for more than an hour. They then left for Mugabe's office, where the meeting with Tsvangarai was scheduled to take place.

But only Arthur Mutambara, leader of a faction of the MDC which won 10 seats in the March 29 elections, pitched up. When it became clear, after an hour, that Tsvangirai was not coming, there were frantic but unsuccessful efforts to locate him.

Sources said Tsvangirai had snubbed Mbeki's efforts because of his insistence that any mediation from now on should involve the African Union. The AU met last week and expressed deep concern at the Zimbabwean situation.

Mbeki flew back from Harare last night and immediately left for the G-8 meeting in Japan. His failure to secure the face-to-face meeting would be a major blow, as he would have wanted to arrive in Japan, having scored a major political breakthrough.

Sources close to the mediation process have revealed that the meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai could have paved the way for a much broader process aimed at reaching a negotiated settlement. They blamed "non-African" influences - thought to be the British and the Americans - for advising Tsvangirai to snub Mbeki and Mugabe.

"Tsvangirai's failure to pitch up for a meeting he had agreed to is an exercise of extreme political folly," sources said. "He has been saying that he wants to meet Mugabe face to face, but when the opportunity arises, he walks away from it. He may not like Mbeki as a mediator but the South African president has delivered that which Tsvangirai has always insisted he wanted. This is the time for real leadership to come to the fore. That means we should see massive change in the way in which things are being done."

MDC spokesman George Sibotshiswe said his party would not attend any meeting intended to give legitimacy to Mugabe's presidency. "A meeting designed to recognise Mugabe as president will not solve anything. We had no reason to go to a meeting at State House and stand on the lawn while Mbeki is still the sole mediator.

"We are of the view that President Mbeki needs to be assisted and believe that the AU must appoint a permanent mediator to work with him.

"We are also concerned with the timing of the meeting, coming as it did before the G-8 summit. We are concerned that people might have wanted to use the meeting to show the G-8 that progress was being made in Zimbabwe when there is no progress," he said.

These included the violence, toning down the rhetoric on both sides, and making sincere attempts to be part of the solution to Zimbabwe's problems.

The source said both parties should also desist from setting almost impossible preconditions to negotiations. "There can't be issues that are not negotiable."

Mbeki's spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga would not comment on the Tsvangirai snub.

He would only confirm the meeting between Mbeki, Mugabe and Mutambara.

It is understood there will be renewed efforts by a South African team working in Zimbabwe and led by Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi.

Issues identified as key to the negotiated settlement are: