Morgan Tsvangirai has Asked Mbeki to Step Down As Mediator in Zimbabwe Crisis

Talks to break Zimbabwe’s political deadlock took a dramatic new twist Wednesday as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged Thabo Mbeki to step down from his mediation role. Tsvangirai accused the former South African president of being insensitive to Harare’s deepening humanitarian and political crisis.

Tsvangirai said his party was no longer confident of the impartiality of Mbeki in the ongoing talks to break Zimbabwe’s cabinet deadlock and urged him to recuse himself to allow a more neutral person to assume the mediation role.

The Zimbabwean opposition leader he had already written to South African President Kgalema Motlanthe about the MDC’s position and expected him to act soon to avoid a further deterioration of Zimbabwe’s crisis.

Motlanthe is the current chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which in March last year appointed Mbeki as mediator in the Zimbabwean political crisis.

Tsvangirai accused Mbeki of bias in favor of President Robert Mugabe.

“He is not serving to bring the parties together because he does not understand what needs to be done,” Tsvangirai said in a statement.

The statement is seen as highlighting problems in talks between the MDC and President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF which started on Tuesday in South Africa to discuss a constitutional amendment in Zimbabwe.

The amendment was expected to give effect to a power-sharing agreement signed by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and the leader of a smaller MDC faction in September.

Tsvangirai was set to become prime minister under a unity government proposed by the power-sharing agreement.

The delay in finding a solution to the political crisis threatens peace and stability in the SADC region where most member states face the risk of cholera which has killed nearly 400 people in Zimbabwe.

Source African Press Agency

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