Zimbabwe's main opposition said yesterday it was ready to meet President Robert Mugabe's party under South Africa's mediation, but holds no hope the dialogue will stem the country's spiraling crisis.
Southern African leaders meeting in Tanzania on Thursday appointed South African President Thabo Mbeki to facilitate talks between the Zimbabwe's feuding political parties in a bid to end the escalating political and economic crisis gripping the country.
But the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said while it was prepared to hold talks with Mugabe's party, it did not expect the talks to bring immediate relief to the country's woes.
"We will definitely meet him but there is no illusion," Tendai Biti, secretary general of the main MDC faction said, referring to longtime mediator of the Zimbabwe crisis.
"Even if you have dialogue tomorrow, how does that reduce inflation from 1,730 percent to, say, 2 percent, or reduce an unemployment rate of 80 percent," he said.
The MDC called for Mugabe's removal from office if the fortunes of the country are to be turned around.
"The crisis is with us for some time with or without dialogue," he added.
Spokeswoman of a breakaway faction of the MDC, Priscilla Misihairabwi, said they welcomed the proposed dialogue if there were a detailed timetable and agenda on the talks.
"Until that dialogue is linked to the elections ... then we will continue to be where we are," said Misihairabwi.
Mbeki, who has been blamed for his quiet diplomacy approach to the Zimbabwe crisis, has mediated in the crisis for years, but opposition say nothing has come out of it.
"We have been on this road before. It's not the first time that President Mbeki has been appointed to mediate in this crisis and we wonder what is different now that will bring any hope when our leaders are being butchered, our offices are being raided and our equipment destroyed," Biti said.
"What kind of dialogue can you have under such circumstances," he said.
The state-run Herald daily cited Mugabe as saying Mbeki would talk to the opposition and see whether there is need for dialogue, but warned the opposition against "engaging in violence."
Asked if the MDC was disappointed at the outcome of the regional talks which also called for the lifting of travel bans on Mugabe and his close aides, Biti said: "I am not disappointed because I was not expecting anything from the summit."
He also expressed concern at the summit's hyping of the land reforms and sanctions as the root cause of the country's crises.
"The truth of the crisis is bad governance, violence, fascism ... the first thing is to say Robert Mugabe go away," he said.
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