Zimbabwe’s main political rivals were in South Africa yesterday for a regional summit with negotiators expected to aim for a resolution to the country’s political crisis.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s attendance at the gathering of heads of state was controversial, with Botswana’s president snubbing the gathering after his government said it did not recognize the 84-year-old leader’s re-election.
Regional trade unions also planned protests and a group called the Zimbabwean Exile Forum said it was launching an urgent legal action at the Southern African Development Community tribunal in Windhoek to block Mugabe’s invitation.
PHOTO: AP
There was controversy even before the summit began, with main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s trip delayed on Thursday after authorities at Harare airport temporarily seized his passport.
He flew to South Africa on Friday, after his passport was returned.
The crisis that intensified following Mugabe’s re-election in a June run-off poll widely condemned as a sham was high on the summit’s agenda, and there were indications power-sharing talks between the rivals would resume.
The chief negotiator for Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, said: “Talks are going to resume on the sidelines of the SADC summit.”
Tsvangirai said he was “hopeful” talks would resume, but a spokesman provided few details.
“Any dialogue that happens will happen within the context of the summit,” said Nqobizitha Mlilo, spokesman for the main opposition.
Power-sharing talks were stalled when three days of negotiations adjourned on Tuesday after Tsvangirai said he needed more time to consider a deal agreed to by Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, who heads a smaller opposition faction.
Tsvangirai believes he has the right to the lion’s share of power since he finished ahead of Mugabe in the March first round of the presidential election.
ZANU-PF has insisted Mugabe must be recognized as president in any deal, as he won the June vote in which he was the only candidate after Tsvangirai boycotted it.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday talks between the rivals would push ahead “until we find a solution.”
“Of course there isn’t power-sharing right now, but the talks are still going on,” she told reporters. “Until we find a solution they will continue to go on because SADC doesn’t have the luxury of walking away from Zimbabwe.”
Tsvangirai boycotted the June presidential run-off after saying violence against his supporters had left dozens dead and thousands injured.
Mugabe defied international and regional calls to postpone the vote and pushed ahead with it anyway, handing himself a new term.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS