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Zanu-PF digs in, resists Sadc appointed Jomic members
15 Aug 2011 at 11:06hrs | Views
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF is reported to be strongly resisting efforts by South African President Jacob Zuma to deploy officials from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to help monitor the implementation of agreements among the parties within the unity government.
This is one of several points on which the party is digging in its heels before next week's SADC summit in Luanda, where Zimbabwe is to figure prominently on the agenda reports Peta Thornycroft for South Africa's Sunday Independent.
"As a result of Zanu-PF's resistance few observers expect to move the country towards early free and fair elections" said Thornycroft.
Last week Zuma's team of mediators on Zimbabwe met in Harare with the three parties in the unity government, trying to arrange for three officials – from South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique – representing the SADC, to join the multi-party Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) which is supposed to ensure that agreements among the parties are observed.
But Zanu-PF immediately rejected the decision, saying it would infringe on the country's sovereignty if non-Zimbabweans were appointed to Jomic.
Last week the six Zimbabwean negotiators from Zanu-PF and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spent the day haggling over minor points of disagreement in the roadmap to elections that they have been trying to agree on for many months.
Most of the outstanding issues stem from the refusal of Zanu-PF to implement many of the agreements it signed in the September 2008 Global Political Agreement for the unity government.
This is one of several points on which the party is digging in its heels before next week's SADC summit in Luanda, where Zimbabwe is to figure prominently on the agenda reports Peta Thornycroft for South Africa's Sunday Independent.
"As a result of Zanu-PF's resistance few observers expect to move the country towards early free and fair elections" said Thornycroft.
Last week Zuma's team of mediators on Zimbabwe met in Harare with the three parties in the unity government, trying to arrange for three officials – from South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique – representing the SADC, to join the multi-party Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) which is supposed to ensure that agreements among the parties are observed.
But Zanu-PF immediately rejected the decision, saying it would infringe on the country's sovereignty if non-Zimbabweans were appointed to Jomic.
Last week the six Zimbabwean negotiators from Zanu-PF and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spent the day haggling over minor points of disagreement in the roadmap to elections that they have been trying to agree on for many months.
Most of the outstanding issues stem from the refusal of Zanu-PF to implement many of the agreements it signed in the September 2008 Global Political Agreement for the unity government.
Source - iol
