Mbeki visits Zimbabwe
Nthambeleni Gabara
18 June 2008
President Thabo Mbeki is to visit Zimbabwe to meet with President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday as part of a facilitation process mandated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the meeting between the two Presidents will take place in Bulawayo.
Last week, the South African government raised concerns about political violence in Zimbabwe ahead of the forthcoming run-off round of the presidential election, set to take place on 27 June.
Briefing journalists at the Union Buildings on Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters that the arrests of Zimbabwe's opposition leaders and the violence in the country needed to be addressed urgently.
The SADC observer delegation, which has been substantially increased, would collaborate with United Nations observers in monitoring political violence while trying to resolve tensions, Pahad said.
President Mbeki has also expressed serious concerns on the issue, calling on all parties to refrain from any actions that could detract from free and fair elections.
"We will also continue to argue that the people of Zimbabwe will have to unite to extricate their country from the economic crisis in which it is immersed, and that we will contribute everything we can to support the realisation of this objective," Mbeki told Parliament last week.
Mbeki has also dispatched senior South African retired generals to assess the situation in the country and report back to him.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has also sent a high-ranking UN official to Zimbabwe to try to resolve tensions ahead of the elections. Haile Menkerios, UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs, arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday and will be there until 20 June, a spokesperson for Ban said.
The visit is a follow-up to Ban's meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on the fringes of a global food crisis summit in Rome last week.
Source: BuaNews
