{"id":427566,"date":"2011-05-20T13:38:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T13:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/20\/zuma-to-tackle-mugabe-in-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2011-05-20T13:38:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T13:38:41","slug":"zuma-to-tackle-mugabe-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/20\/zuma-to-tackle-mugabe-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuma to Tackle Mugabe in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
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\n

\"Zimbabwe<\/a><\/p>\n

Dumisani Muleya<\/p>\n

20 May 2011<\/p>\n

\n

Harare \u2014 SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma and his Southern African Development Community (Sadc) colleagues are tenaciously moving to tackle President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe situation at the forthcoming inter-regional tripartite free trade area summit in Johannesburg next month after he wriggled off the hook at today’s extraordinary regional meeting in Windhoek.<\/p>\n

Following the watershed Sadc troika of the organ on politics, defence and security summit in Livingstone in April, Mugabe has been furiously lashing out at regional leaders in public, while at the same time secretly sending envoys to apologise and plead for support.<\/p>\n

Zuma and his Sadc leaders read the riot act to Mugabe in Livingstone and wanted to deal decisively with him and the Zimbabwe situation today in Windhoek.<\/p>\n

However, Zuma failed to make it to the Windhoek summit due to local government elections in South Africa and other pressing commitments, diplomatic sources confirmed yesterday.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who leads the MDC-T, and Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube, the leader of MDC-N, resultantly did not go to Windhoek since Zuma would not be there and Zimbabwe is not on the agenda.<\/p>\n

Sources said Zuma and other Sadc leaders now want to hold a focused and rigorous session on Zimbabwe on the sidelines of the Sadc-Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa)-East African Community (EAC) Tripartite Free Trade Area summit in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

They said Zuma and his allies — who want Mugabe and other GNU leaders to fully implement the GPA and come up with an elections roadmap before free and fair polls can be held within a realistic and practical timeframe — have already started serious lobbying ahead of the critical meeting.<\/p>\n

The Sadc-Comesa-EAC summit will be held in Johannesburg from June 10-12. Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salomao yesterday confirmed from Windhoek the inter-regional grouping summit would be held within the next three weeks but could not comment on Sadc plans to have a concentrated session on Zimbabwe there.<\/p>\n

“The tripartite summit will be held in Johannesburg on June 10,” Salomao said without elaborating.<\/p>\n

Regional leaders in Namibia will now discuss the report of ministers of justice and attorney-generals on the controversial Sadc Tribunal — another issue infuriating Mugabe — the principles, guidelines and institutional framework, the declaration and roadmap towards the establishment of the grand free trade area between Comesa, EAC and Sadc and progress on the impact of the global financial crisis on Sadc.<\/p>\n

Sources said Zuma also felt it would be “not strategic” and “counter-productive” to discuss Zimbabwe in a highly-charged Windhoek atmosphere where issues could be buried under some sludge of rhetoric and confrontation.<\/p>\n

Sources said Zuma told Vice-President John Nkomo last week that he would not be going to Windhoek. Nkomo was sent by Mugabe to make peace with Zuma and lobby for support. Nkomo was said to have also met with Botswana President Ian Khama to try to plead for support and prevent confrontation in Windhoek. Khama has always dealt with Mugabe directly and ruthlessly.<\/p>\n

Fearing Zuma and his allies would finish him off in Windhoek, Mugabe, who has lost support in the region, also dispatched other top envoys to different Sadc countries. Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa went to Angola and Security minister Sydney Sekeramayi travelled to Mozambique to plead for backing. Mugabe and his officials were involved in frantic lobbying in a bid to avoid being routed in Windhoek.<\/p>\n

Zuma has now come up with new plans to deal with the Zimbabwe problem at the looming inter-regional summit in Johannesburg, a senior South African official said last night.<\/p>\n

“Zimbabwe is out of the agenda because President Zuma is busy with local government elections whose full results will only be out this weekend. It was decided weeks ago that he is not attending,” the official said. “Besides, there was a feeling here in Pretoria among the president’s advisors that the atmosphere around the summit has been poisoned and discussing Zimbabwe there would generate more heat than light.”<\/p>\n

But other Sadc diplomats in Windhoek said Zimbabwe would feature prominently on the sidelines of the Sadc-Comesa-EAC summit after it was removed from the agenda of today’s Windhoek meeting.<\/p>\n

“The Johannesburg encounter on Zimbabwe would be a theatre of fierce diplomatic battles between the pro-Zuma and pro-Mugabe camps in Sadc,” a senior Sadc official said.<\/p>\n

“Prior to the Livingstone summit, Zuma had rallied key Sadc leaders to support his position as facilitator on Zimbabwe and regional power-broker. However, after that Mugabe panicked and initially thought he could reverse the situation through confrontation,” the official said. “Later, he realised he needed to use diplomacy if he were to survive in Windhoek.”<\/p>\n

Initially Mugabe slammed Sadc leaders for telling him to his face that they were “disappointed” with his and others’ failure to implement the GPA and were increasingly becoming “impatient”. This language and other more harsh pronouncements were contained in the Livingstone communiqu\u00e9, something unprecedented in Sadc history where revolutionary solidarity always prevailed over “frank and honest” dialogue. In Livingstone Sadc leaders said they had “frank and honest” discussions about Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

Mugabe, through envoys, first approached Sadc ambassadors in Harare last month in a damage limitation bid after attacking regional leaders and opening the floodgates for Zanu PF officials and the state media to abuse Zuma and his allies. Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi started the damage-control mission and was backed by Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba. Later Nkomo, Mnangagwa, Sekeramyi and others were sent across the region to do further damage control, apologise and lobby for support.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\nZuma to Tackle Mugabe in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dumisani Muleya 20 May 2011 Harare \u2014 SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma and his Southern African Development Community (Sadc) colleagues are tenaciously moving to tackle President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe situation at the forthcoming inter-regional tripartite free trade area summit in Johannesburg next month after he wriggled off the hook at today’s extraordinary regional meeting in Windhoek. Following the watershed Sadc troika of the organ on politics, defence and security summit in Livingstone in April, Mugabe has been furiously lashing out at regional leaders in public, while at the same time secretly sending envoys to apologise and plead for support<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":406170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-427566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"yoast_head":"\nZuma to Tackle Mugabe in South Africa - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/20\/zuma-to-tackle-mugabe-in-south-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Zuma to Tackle Mugabe in South Africa - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Dumisani Muleya 20 May 2011 Harare \u2014 SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma and his Southern African Development Community (Sadc) colleagues are tenaciously moving to tackle President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe situation at the forthcoming inter-regional tripartite free trade area summit in Johannesburg next month after he wriggled off the hook at today's extraordinary regional meeting in Windhoek. 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