Reports Claim South Africa’s Mbeki Ready to Announce Way Forward on Zimbabwe Talks

South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected to announce when Zimbabwe’s stalled power-sharing talks will continue after holding separate meetings with the country’s rival political parties, a state-owned weekly said on Sunday.

Mbeki, who is mediating in Zimbabwe’s political crisis, met separately last week with negotiators from the ruling ZANU PF and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

“It is still unclear exactly when President Mbeki will make the pronouncement after the SADC-appointed inter-party facilitator separately met the parties’ negotiating team in South Africa on Friday in search for a way forward,” The Sunday Mail reported Sunday.

Mbeki was appointed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in March 2007 to mediate in Zimbabwe’s political crisis.

The talks stalled early this month after the leader of the main MDC faction, Morgan Tsvangirai, refused to sign a power-sharing agreement that would have kept President Robert Mugabe as executive president.

Tsvangirai is pushing for a deal that clips Mugabe’s powers and gives the opposition leader authority to run a proposed unity government.

Source African Press Agency

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