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| Jacob Zuma Bids To Ease Zimbabwe Coalition Tension |
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| Date: 16-Mar-2010 |
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South African President Jacob Zuma is due to land in Zimbabwe for a three-day trip, aiming to ease tensions within the fragile power-sharing government.
It is thought Mr Zuma will assess the country's readiness for an election, which could take place next year. President Robert Mugabe and old rival Morgan Tsvangirai, now Prime Minister, united in government a year ago. But they remain at odds over several key issues and have struggled to turn around Zimbabwe's battered economy.
The crisis in their country has forced some three million Zimbabweans to flee across the border to South Africa, where they live as refugees. When regional bloc Sadc appointed Mr Zuma as its chief mediator on Zimbabwe in 2009, Mr Mugabe's critics hoped he would take a tougher line on Zimbabwe's president than his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki.
But there has been little public evidence of a different approach to Mr Mbeki's policy of "quiet diplomacy". According to South African officials, Mr Zuma is in Harare to "facilitate the removal of obstacles which hinder the full implementation of a power-sharing deal".
The BBC's Karen Allen, in Johannesburg, says it seems increasingly likely that Mr Zuma's focus will be ensuring that new electoral laws are in place in time for a possible vote next year. Mr Mugabe recently said he would stand in the next election, if his Zanu-PF party wanted him.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the BBC's World Today programme that since the unity government was formed, "it has been a year of disappointment, a year of anxiety and suspense, a year of unfulfilled promises". He said the only way of brining finality and closure would be to hold "free and fair elections under a new constitution".
But our correspondent says many Zimbabweans fear a repeat of the violence of the elections two years' ago. The MDC has accused Mr Mugabe of breaking the power-sharing deal by unilaterally appointing a central bank governor and attorney general. It also says its activists are still being harassed and beaten by Zanu-PF militants and members of the security forces.
The trial of senior MDC politician Roy Bennett on terrorism charges has further divided the two parties. For his part, Mr Mugabe has angrily accused Mr Tsvangirai of not doing enough to have Western sanctions lifted. On a recent visit to the UK, Mr Zuma also tried unsuccessfully to have those sanctions eased. |
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| Source: BBC |
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