DIDYMUS Mutasa . . . confirmed ZANU PF party officials were in South Africa

By Patricia Mpofu 

HARRAE - A South African-led initiative to pluck neighbouring Zimbabwe out of crisis this week looked in danger of collapsing as President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party insisted it would not discuss a new constitution with the opposition, sources told ZimOnline. 

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) last March tasked South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki to lead efforts to resolve Zimbabwe’s eight-year political and economic crisis by facilitating dialogue between ZANU PF and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party. 

Mbeki - who will report back to SADC leaders in August - has previously said progress was being made in the search for a negotiated solution, while reports in Zimbabwean and regional media suggested ZANU PF and the MDC had agreed on a formal agenda of talks, with the issue of a new constitution topping the list. 

However, sources on Thursday said ZANU PF representatives, Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, earlier this week met the South African team of mediators led by Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi to tell them they had instructions from their party not to discuss a new constitution. 

The ZANU PF team is said to have met Mufamadi and his team in Pretoria on Monday. Frank Chikane, director-general in Mbeki’s office, also attended the meeting at which Chinamasa said ZANU PF’s powerful politburo cabinet had decided the ruling party should press ahead with plans to amend Zimbabwe’s constitution through Parliament. 

“He (Chinamasa) told them that the MDC rejected constitutional reforms in 2000 and that the politburo had now resolved to push the 18th Amendment to the constitution to allow for joint presidential and parliamentary elections next year,” said a top ZANU PF and government official, whom we cannot name. 

Constitutional Amendment No. 18, which the government has tabled in Parliament, will in addition to harmonising elections, empower the House – in which Mugabe enjoys sweeping support – to elect a successor in the event that he dies or plans to step down. 

The MDC says the amendment is a ploy by Mugabe – who will extend his rule to 33 years if he is re-elected next year and finishes the five-year presidential term – to hang on to power for life. 

The opposition party insists the Mbeki-led talks should lead to the promulgation of a new and democratic constitution that will guarantee free and fair polls in 2008. 

Chinamasa and Goche were not immediately available for comment on the matter while ZANU PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa confirmed that the two party officials had indeed flown to South Africa on party business. 

But Mutasa would not be drawn to disclose the nature of the business and also refused to confirm or deny that the ruling party wanted the issue of a new constitution removed from the talks agenda. 

"I don't think it is any of your business (whether ZANU PF does not want to discuss new constitution) because I do not think you are a member of our party," said Mutasa, before cutting off the conversation. 

The South African government has remained mum on the talks but our sources said it had summoned representatives of the two MDC factions to Pretoria to discuss the way forward after the latest snag to hit the talks. 

MDC officials declined to comment on the matter but sources said a delegation of the opposition party comprising Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube left Harare on Thursday afternoon aboard a British Airways flight headed for South Africa. 

Diplomatic sources said the talks – which many analysts say could be the last chance to save Zimbabwe from total collapse – were wobbling but should not be written off yet.   

However, they strongly emphasised that Mbeki needed to work harder to save the talks from collapse or degenerating into an irrelevant sideshow. 

It was critical for Mbeki to ensure that the issue of a new constitution remained on the agenda and that there was a commitment by all players to end political violence and human rights abuses, they said. 

Zimbabwe is suffering a debilitating economic crisis that is highlighted by the world’s highest inflation rate of nearly 5 000 percent, a rapidly contracting GDP, the fastest for a country not at war according to the World Bank and shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel. 

The crisis took a turn for the worst after Mugabe three weeks ago decreed that business should halve prices of all commodities in a desperate bid to control inflation. Economic experts have said the price cuts will certainly backfire as more companies will collapse because they are being forced to sell goods at a loss. 

Mugabe, 83, and Zimbabwe’s sole ruler since the country’s 1980 independence from Britain, denies ruining the country and instead claims economic troubles are because of sabotage by Western nations determined to punish his government for seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks. - ZimOnline