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Mugabe in a bad temper exchange with Zuma
13 Jun 2011 at 14:49hrs | Views
President Robert Mugabe was involved in a bad tempered exchange with his South African counterpart yesterday as his hopes of triggering an early election this year were derailed at a regional summit.
Previously loath to confront Mr Mugabe over the near-constant stream reports of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and the failure to implement a power-sharing deal agreed more than two years ago, Jacob Zuma has now issued a sharp rebuke to Africa's oldest leader.
Speaking at a regional summit in Sandton, Johannesburg, attended by 14 heads of state, Mr Zuma rejected Mr Mugabe's attempts to present Zimbabwe as secure and ready for elections this year.
In a report put before the Southern African Development Community, he warned that violence, harassment, hate speech and politically-motivated arrests had to stop.
Mr Mugabe reportedly told Mr Zuma that claims his supporters were prepetuating political violence in Zimbabwe were made up. Mr Zuma was said to have replied:"I do not manufacture things, my reports are based on things that are happening in the country, based on facts."
Lindiwe Zulu, a member of Mr Zuma's mediation team, said his firm stance had not gone down well with his neighbour: "The meeting had mixed feelings with some expressing displeasure and discomfort." To Mr Mugabe's chagrin, and despite frenzied lobbying by senior aides of his Zanu PF party before the summit, SADC's members adopted Mr Zuma's recommendations.
Tomaz Salomao, SADC's executive secretary, said that Mr Zuma's report, initially tabled at a SADC meeting in Livingstone, Zambia, was "final." "No one has the power or mandate to change what (was) deliberated in Livingstone," he said.
Monitors will now be sent to Zimbabwe to police the completion of reforms laid out in the Global Political Agreement signed when ZanuPF entered into a power-sharing government with the now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change in 2008.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State whose current tour of Africa is seen partly as an attempt to persuade SADC members to hold Mr Mugabe to the power-sharing deal, said she was "encouraged".
"This is what we expect him to implement and we are grateful for the leadership of (those) in the region who are making it very clear what the way forward should be," she said.
Previously loath to confront Mr Mugabe over the near-constant stream reports of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and the failure to implement a power-sharing deal agreed more than two years ago, Jacob Zuma has now issued a sharp rebuke to Africa's oldest leader.
Speaking at a regional summit in Sandton, Johannesburg, attended by 14 heads of state, Mr Zuma rejected Mr Mugabe's attempts to present Zimbabwe as secure and ready for elections this year.
In a report put before the Southern African Development Community, he warned that violence, harassment, hate speech and politically-motivated arrests had to stop.
Mr Mugabe reportedly told Mr Zuma that claims his supporters were prepetuating political violence in Zimbabwe were made up. Mr Zuma was said to have replied:"I do not manufacture things, my reports are based on things that are happening in the country, based on facts."
Lindiwe Zulu, a member of Mr Zuma's mediation team, said his firm stance had not gone down well with his neighbour: "The meeting had mixed feelings with some expressing displeasure and discomfort." To Mr Mugabe's chagrin, and despite frenzied lobbying by senior aides of his Zanu PF party before the summit, SADC's members adopted Mr Zuma's recommendations.
Tomaz Salomao, SADC's executive secretary, said that Mr Zuma's report, initially tabled at a SADC meeting in Livingstone, Zambia, was "final." "No one has the power or mandate to change what (was) deliberated in Livingstone," he said.
Monitors will now be sent to Zimbabwe to police the completion of reforms laid out in the Global Political Agreement signed when ZanuPF entered into a power-sharing government with the now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change in 2008.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State whose current tour of Africa is seen partly as an attempt to persuade SADC members to hold Mr Mugabe to the power-sharing deal, said she was "encouraged".
"This is what we expect him to implement and we are grateful for the leadership of (those) in the region who are making it very clear what the way forward should be," she said.
Source - Telegraph
