July 7, 2008

Mbeki Holds Talks With Mugabe, Breakaway Opposition

By Vernon Wessels and Brian Latham

July 5 (Bloomberg) -- South African President Thabo Mbeki held talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and leaders of a breakaway faction of the main opposition party in Harare today in a bid to resolve the nation's political crisis.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, declined to meet Mbeki, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said by phone from Harare. ``Talks should be transparent, predictable in their outcome and the process should satisfy all stakeholders,'' Chamisa said.

Mbeki met Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, the head of a breakaway faction of the MDC, Mukoni Ratshitanga, Mbeki's spokesman said by phone from Johannesburg today.

Tsvangirai has said Mbeki, who has been appointed by the Southern African Development Community to lead talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, should step down as mediator because of his failure to criticize Mugabe. The MDC says at least 103 of its supporters have been killed since it took control of the lower house of parliament in March 29 elections.

Mugabe claimed victory in a presidential run-off on June 27, which Tsvangirai boycotted to protest violence by backers of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

Mbeki was scheduled to travel next to the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting in Japan, Ratshitanga said.

G-8 Discussion

The G-8 is likely to ``strongly condemn what Mugabe has done'' and ``strongly question the legitimacy of his government,'' Dennis Wilder, senior director for Asian affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, told reporters on Air Force One on the way to Japan.

Mbeki had a ``brief'' discussion with Mugabe and the two were then joined by Mutambara, the dissident faction's secretary-general Welshman Ncube and Ncube's deputy Priscilla Misihairibwi-Mushonga, Agence France-Presse reported after witnessing the meeting. Ratshitanga didn't know whether Mbeki met everyone at the same time.

The African Union called for a power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe after a summit in Egypt this past week. Tsvangirai has rejected that proposal, saying it wouldn't help end violence or recognize the MDC's March 29 victory.

Mugabe, 84, has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years and presided over a decade of an economic recession worsened by often violent seizures of most of the country's white-owned farms. The policy contributed to the world's highest inflation rate, at least 350,000 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vernon Wessels in Johannesburg at vwessels@bloomberg.net