Former South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki has expressed
confidence in Zimbabwe’s capacity to resolve its challenges and reiterated his
support for processes aimed at addressing issues of concern.
During his two-day stay, Mr Mbeki met President Mnangagwa,
MDC-Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa, leaders of political parties involved in
the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD), the National Patriotic Front and the
Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC).
Speaking to journalists before his departure yesterday, Mr
Mbeki, who said he had come at the invitation of President Mnangagwa, promised
to return in the next two weeks to continue his engagements with stakeholders
that have requested to meet him.
“I have a lot of confidence in the leadership of this
country, the collective leadership and coming together as they have done in the
past,” he said.
“There is a lot of capacity, lots of capacity in the
country to resolve all of these problems, all of these reforms that are needed
whether it is political or economic, but we are listening, so we will come back
later this month because people have left now to prepare for the Christmas
holidays. We will come back and talk a bit more.”
Earlier on, Mr Mbeki had said he had come to meet President
Mnangagwa and took the opportunity to interact with other political players in
the country.
“I came here to see the President,” he said. “I hadn’t seen
him since he became President. As I said (on Monday) but as you know, I know
many people in Zimbabwe, I have got many friends here so a lot of other people
wanted to see me.
“So, we have been talking to everybody and everybody, of
course, is interested in discussing the situation . . . I am interested in the
situation here; just to understand what is happening and to say basically that
we support the efforts of Zimbabweans to address their fundamental challenges
whatever the challenges are (and) that everybody gets together.
“So we have been listening to everybody and we haven’t
finished that listening process, so we will come back again later this month to
continue to finalise that. It’s really a listening thing because we want to
give whatever support we can.”
Mr Mbeki said ordinary people wanted to see the country’s
challenges addressed, adding that South Africa, as a neighbour, was willing to
support that process.
“As I said, many people in Zimbabwe are saying the country
needs to address many challenges — whether they are political reforms, economic
and so on,” he said.
“We are neighbours and as I said, I have many friends in
this country, I know many people and I think we should give all the necessary
support.”
Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet
(Presidential Communications) Mr George Charamba yesterday said Mr Mbeki was
here to encourage dialogue as a friend of Zimbabwe.
“He is just encouraging dialogue as a concerned friend of
Zimbabwe,” he said.
“Whatever interaction that will happen between political
parties will have to be national and within the context of POLAD.”
Government has already embarked on the political and reform
process that has seen a number of pieces of legislation being passed in
Parliament to address political and economic concerns raised by political
parties, civil society and ordinary citizens.
Meanwhile, The Herald is reliably informed that after his
meeting with Mr Mbeki, Mr Nelson Chamisa was agreeable to join broad-based
negotiations.
“He has already created a negotiating team involving Messrs
Tendai Biti, Douglas Mwonzora and one other, after the party’s standing
committee meeting on Tuesday,” said a source.
“The team will participate in the working teams that were
created under POLAD.” Herald
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