From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Jul 01 2008 - 16:01:50 EDT
MDC gets support from 40 African leaders
By Tichaona Sibanda
1 July 2008
MDC Vice-President Thokozani Khupe said African leaders are aware there
is a 'big problem' in Zimbabwe that urgently needs to be dealt with
before it's too late.
Speaking to Newsreel from Johannesburg, on her way back home from the AU
summit in Egypt, Khupe said 40 African leaders supported the MDC victory
in the March elections. Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he won
outright against Robert Mugabe, but was denied victory by election
officials who manipulated the figures. The MDC also wrestled control of
parliament after winning 100 seats, while 10 others went to the MDC
faction led by Arthur Mutambara. One went to an independent and Zanu-PF
got 99 seats. Of course it did take government 5 weeks to release the
figures so the Zanu PF loss could have been even greater.
'Everyone is aware that Zimbabwe is burning, that Zimbabwe is on fire
and that it is important to save it before it is destroyed completely,'
Khupe said.
The MDC vice-president was leading a five-member party delegation on a
lobbying expedition to the AU summit. The delegation was able to meet at
least 40 Heads of State who sympathised with the MDC.
'We spoke to the African leaders who understood our problem. We took joy
from the fact that during a foreign ministers' conference, a lot of
delegates wanted the Zimbabwe issue resolved urgently. This was after
some countries unsuccessfully tried to block the issue from being put on
the agenda,' Khupe added.
South Africa, Gabon and Eritrea had lobbied other foreign ministers to
stop them discussing the crisis, while recommending that the crisis
should only be dealt with by the SADC bloc.
'What surprised us was that so many foreign ministers stood up and
demanded that the Zimbabwe issue be dealt with once and for all. They
felt the crisis had dragged on for a long time and that it was time
African leaders came up with a solution,' she said.
The MDC is pushing the AU to appoint an envoy who will help Thabo Mbeki
mediate talks between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe to create a
transitional government and prepare for fresh elections. The MDC beat
Mugabe's Zanu-PF in municipal, district council and parliamentary
elections in March, the first time the regime hasn't held a majority in
those branches of government since independence in 1980.
But even though Mugabe might have come under pressure behind close
doors, the AU leaders were very careful not to criticise him publicly.
The international community, and Zimbabweans, have been extremely
disappointed by this approach. The credibility of Africa is clearly on
the line here and if the leaders do not take a much firmer approach to
Robert Mugabe, the entire Southern African region will be negatively
affected.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
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