Zimbabwe's leaders must act: Zuma
Bathandwa Mbola
9 June 2009
South African President Jacob Zuma has called on the leaders of Zimbabwe to get on with implementing their power-sharing agreement.
"We are saying to our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe that they must implement the agreement. It's very important," he said during an interview with the SABC on Sunday.
Negative regional effect
While Zuma conceded that the power-sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara was not easy to implement, he said they needed to take into account the effect on other countries.
"Because of the size of South Africa and its economy, Zimbabweans tend to come here in big numbers. Now that affects South Africa. It's an important point to take into account as we deal with the Zimbabwean situation, that it's not just a situation that affects Zimbabwe only," he said.
He said Zimbabweans were also flocking to Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, and therefore it was affecting the whole region.
"We have got a situation, and therefore the correcting of the Zimbabwean situation is important, because it does ease the pressure that you would have in South Africa. The estimation is that between three and four million Zimbabweans are here; that's not a small number," said Zuma.
He said South Africa and the region were willing to help Zimbabwe to implement the agreement, and further called on richer countries to help rebuild the country.
"We are also calling upon other countries who have got more possibilities to help support financially, resource-wise, with material, to ensure that that agreement holds and it works and it begins to take Zimbabwe out of trouble."
Aid appeal
Zimbabwe has been appealing for US$8.5-billion to rebuild its broken economy after forming a unity government in February.
Tsvangirai was scheduled to meet his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende, this week on the first leg of a three-week tour of Europe and America to raise aid. He was also expected to visit the United States for talks with President Barack Obama.
He was also scheduled to meet officials at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund while in the US. The European leg of his tour was to take him to Britain, France, Sweden and Brussels, seat of the 27-nation EU.
Source: BuaNews
