Friday, December 12, 2008

Do not join Mugabe - exiles warn MDC - 12 December 2008



JOHANNESBURG – Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean exiles have urged the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) not to give in to pressure and accept a weaker role in government, saying that the looming announcement by ZAPU that it was mulling a break-away from Mugabe's party showed that the octogenarian leader could not be trusted. Two weeks ago, the Elders, comprising former US President, Jimmy Carter, former UN Secretary General, Koffi Annan and Graca Machel, wife to former South African President, Nelson Mandela, called on the MDC to join Mugabe's party and negotiate power later, to solve the country's worsening multi-facetted crisis.

“The obvious inequities in the proper sharing or dividing of power they can be corrected later, not only by immediate changes to the law but over a period of time, until a new constitution has been put in place or over the next 18 months,” said Carter.

Machel said that the MDC would have to work with Zanu (PF) to “open those hands and release it (power), instead of delaying the unity government.”

However, the exiles have condemned the pressure that has been put on the opposition and called for the MDC to pull out of the deal if Mugabe does not hand over some of the contested key ministries, which include that of Home Affairs.

The exiles say that any more compromise by the MDC would render it useless in government, while also worsening the country’s multi-facetted crisis, which began eight years ago.

“Any such move will allow Mugabe to exercise his executive powers and ride roughshod on the opposition, as he did to PF ZAPU after the ill-fated Unity Accord. We do not want anything that will not solve our problems,” said Michael Ndlovu, who lives in Alexandra township.

He said that instead of putting pressure on the MDC, both African leaders and the whole of the international community should, instead, be telling Mugabe that as someone who created the crisis, he should share power with the opposition, and not dictate to it how thing should be done.

“It seems that the international community is scared of Mugabe. Why do they always allow him to do as he pleases?” questioned Thulani Sibanda, a fruit vendor at Park Station bus terminus, “It seems that only (MDC leader Morgan) Tsvangirai is ready to challenge this tyrant and he is the only hope that we have. It seems like the whole world views Mugabe as the sole owner of Zimbabwe and they want to allow him to take it further down,” he added.

Solomon Chikohwero, chairman of the MDC Veteran Activists Association (VAA), said that the MDC should not be pushed into getting into a government that would not allow exiles to return home, for fears of their safety.

“After this government has been put in place, we will be stripped of our asylum papers and forced to return home. We therefore, urge the MDC to go into a deal that will make us feel free to return to Zimbabwe and start a new life there, not something that will leave us living here illegally just because we will not be sure of our safety in Zimbabwe.”

He added that if the international community has failed to get the parties to agree on the unity government, it should alternatively call for fresh elections that will be supervised by international peace keepers.

“This deal is our only hope and we must get the best out of it. We all want to be able to go back to Zimbabwe and begin new lives in a more peaceful, more prosperous environment, where international observers will be willing to invest and the international community will bring humanitarian assistance,” said Norah Tapiwa of the Global Zimbabwe Forum.
Mugabe is scared - ANC

Johannesburg - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will be persuaded to retire, a senior official in in the ANC said on Thursday.

Gwede Mantashe, secretary general of the ANC brushed off suggestions that Mugabe could only be forced out through a military invasion.

"I don't think invading Zimbabwe or sanctions would work," he said.

"What will we do to make Mugabe retire? We will persuade him," Mantashe said, according to Sapa news agency.

Mantashe said that South Africa would prefer to deal with Zimbabwe "on a government-to-government level and on a party-to-party level".

He said the ANC leadership had discussed Mugabe's reasons for wanting to stay in power, saying the 84-year-old was afraid of being arrested and charged with war crimes like former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
Taylor, who was Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, was forced into exile in Nigeria before being extradited to the Hague.

"The Hague has taken a number of African people. Mugabe can't be given any guarantees for his safety in retirement," Sapa quoted Mantashe as saying.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, when he was hailed as a liberation hero.

Now the opposition accuses his party of orchestrating deadly political attacks while the country crumbles.

Several mainly Western countries have called on him to step down. - AFP





Source: TheZimbabwean

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