News

Although South Africa was appointed facilitator for the Zimbabwe talks at the Southern African Development Community meeting in Dar es Salaam on 29 March 2007, it did not publicly announce the meetings of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change. But here is how the talks progressed.

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The Movement for Democratic Change was pressured into agreeing to Constitutional Amendment Number 18 which harmonised presidential, parliamentary and local government elections according to IDASA analyst Sydney Masamvu. 

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The British government refused to give the United States information on people that the US wanted to target for sanctions saying British law prohibited it from doing so.

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The United States embassy in Harare was groping everywhere for information on individuals that it wanted to be targeted for sanctions because it could not obtain that information officially from the registrar’s office.

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South African President Thabo Mbeki wanted to “get Bob” before he left office so that he could enhance a legacy battered by his lack of response to the HIV/Aids pandemic and inability to deal with violent crime, a cable just released by Wikileaks says.

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Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai was shocked when South African President Thabo Mbeki announced on 5 February 2006 that Zimbabwe’s political parties had completed negotiations and had provided him a copy of the constitution “initialled by everybody”.

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The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front used its two-thirds parliamentary majority to change the constitution to allow it to legally acquire all land, create a senate and revoke passports of its opponents.

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President Robert Mugabe was relying on the same basic cast of characters who had been the architects and implementers of his repressive policies over the last five years and therefore offered little hope for new directions.

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ZANU-PF politburo member Dzikamai Mavhaire told United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell that the party was paralysed by lack of meaningful debate and President Robert Mugabe continued to manipulate leaders with prospective punishments and rewards measured by loyalty to him.

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The Movement for Democratic Change tried to lure Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front politicians purged at the 2004 Tsholotsho debacle which saw six provincial leaders suspended from the party for attending the meeting at which they allegedly planned to stage a smart coup against Joice Mujuru, John Nkomo and Joseph Msika.

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