Tsvangirai meets British Africa minister

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai met yesterday with Britain's Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds in London to try to push forward an internationally-brokered initiative to resolve the deepening economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

Simmonds, who is also secretary in the Foreign and  Commonwealth Office, reportedly backed the idea to identify brokers among leaders of the Commonwealth states - a group of 53 countries, nearly all former British colonies - to mediate talks between President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai to extricate the country from a deepening economic crisis characterised by deep budget cuts and growing unemployment tipping more people into depression.

Zimbabwe was booted out of the Commonwealth after the flawed 2002 presidential elections, but the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting has expressed hope that Zimbabwe would rejoin the grouping as part of international re-engagement efforts that have seen the EU lift most of the sanctions it had imposed on the southern African country and some of its leaders, leaving only Mugabe and his wife Grace.

Tsvangirai has said an internationally-brokered national dialogue of all stakeholders would be a good starting point to avert the national crisis gripping Zimbabwe.

The last talks brokered by regional grouping Sadc helped end a stalemate over disputed elections and stabilised the economy but  the fragile alliance was mired with squabbling over policy and the slow pace of reforms.

"Their 35-minute discussion centred on the crisis in Zimbabwe and the ways in which the debilitating situation could be averted in the interest of the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe," Tsvangirai's spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka told the Daily News in telephone interview from London.

He declined to go into the minute details saying this was a strategic diplomatic engagement.

Tsvangirai has been holding meetings with key figures in the EU, the British government as well as interacting with ordinary Zimbabweans who are based in the United Kingdom.

He has had several other high-profile engagements.

Tsvangirai returns home today.

Tamborinyoka said Tsvangirai returns home "a day before the nation painfully remembers the grand theft of 31 July in which a monumental fraud was successfully disguised as an election".

Mugabe overwhelmingly won the July 31 vote but his main rival, Tsvangirai, denounced it as a "huge fraud". The EU also expressed serious concerns over alleged irregularities.

"Today, all we see is the underwhelming delivery by those who claim to have won an overwhelming election last year," Tamborinyoka said.

Tsvangirai has said he believed an "internationally-led process" of compromise and reform was possible, but said he was not calling for another government of national unity.

But, suggesting frustration at the lack of real compromise between the authorities and the opposition, he added: "And I am aware that there are some have sought to give conditions to this national dialogue."

Mugabe's Zanu-PF has said it will be prepared to talk to the opposition only after it recognises Mugabe as a legitimately elected president.

A diplomat in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the partners around the table were all clear that they will use their efforts, and are prepared to commit resources at supporting the regeneration and economic development of Zimbabwe.

"It's an opportunity to work on dialogue efforts, but we don't want to raise expectations," the diplomatic source said from London yesterday.

"We are all going to hit the phones now, talk to our various partners, and we will give our very best effort to open the talks."