Zuma puts Zimbabwe on 2009 priority list

Zuma puts Zimbabwe on 2009 priority list
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Jacob ZumaI hope it is not too late for this
Johannesburg – Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), who is also largely tipped to become the country’s leader after next year’s general elections, has placed resolving the ongoing Zimbabwean crisis among the top priority list for his party in 2009.
Zuma said this Monday last week, while addressing Namibian leaders during his tour of that country, meant to strengthen bi-lateral relations between South Africa and its former colony. The ANC leader said that his country was “concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian and political situation”, adding that very swift action was needed to end the political and economic crisis, which has created a serious humanitarian crisis in South Africa’s erstwhile prosperous northern neighbour. Zuma added that South Africa was determined to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe , alongside the conflicts that continue in other African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan , Somalia and Burundi .”Some swift action is clearly needed to deal with the situation in Zimbabwe. We are concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian and political situation there,” said Zuma.He said that although his party was fully supportive of former South African President, Thabo Mbeki’s mediation efforts in trying to solve the ongoing crisis, the ANC leadership still felt that a lot more needed to be done. “We however more feel that more pressure needs to be brought to bear on the negotiating parties to ensure a speedy conclusion of an agreement. We cannot keep Zimbabweans on tenterhooks while the situation in the country deteriorates,” added Zuma. Unlike Mbeki, whose preferred approach of “quiet diplomacy” was usually viewed as sterile in solving the Zimbabwean crisis, Zuma is viewed as a no-nonsense leader and has also been a very strong critic of Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe. Since he took over the leadership of the ANC, Zuma has often accused Mugabe’s government of having lost all liberation qualities and respect for the constitution. After Zimbabwe’s ill-fated elections, when Mugabe deployed state security agents on a violence spree in which they tortured both known and suspected opposition officials, murdering more than 100 of them, Zuma was very vocal in criticizing Mugabe, while the ANC also announced that it had cut ties with Mugabe’s ZANU (PF). Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980, and has, with his authoritarian rule and skewed governance policies, reduced the country from being the bread basket of Southern Africa into being a basket case of the region, failing to even feed its 11 million people. South Africa, which boasts of Africa's strongest economy, is currently under pressure from the international community to lead calls for Mugabe to, at least, share power equally with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and create a government of national unity, after a power-sharing agreement was signed on September 15. However, Mugabe has refused to hand over some key cabinet posts to the MDC, especially those responsible for the country's security, resulting in a deadlock that has spanned close to three months. The national unity government is viewed by many as the only way that the Zimbabwean crisis can be solved, but doubts have now arisen on whether it will work even if the parties involved fainally bury their hatchet and agree on the cabinet posts. - By Our Correspondent