Mbeki Endorses Mugabe in Hope of Coalition Deal

Dumisani Muleya (AllAfrica)--President Thabo Mbeki will recognise Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who was inaugurated yesterday for a further five-year term after he won a one-man election race, in a bid to find a negotiated settlement to Zimbabwe’s political crisis.

"Mbeki wants Mugabe endorsed in the interests of his mediation," a source close to the Zimbabwe talks said. "If he says Mugabe’s re-election is illegitimate, he won’t be able to continue in his mediation role.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said Mugabe won 85,5% of the vote on Friday, compared with 43,2% in the March election, which Morgan Tsvangirai won with 47,9 %. The commission said voter turnout was 42,4%, almost exactly the same as on March 29, raising suspicions of ballot fraud.

Mbeki’s move to endorse Mugabe’s purported victory after Tsvangirai pulled out would divide the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU), already rocked by wrangling over Zimbabwe.

The Pan-African Parliament has rejected Mugabe’s re-election and called for a rerun, highlighting divisions in Africa over the issue.

Marwick Khumalo, who led a team of election observers from across the continent under the auspices of the AU-sponsored Pan-African Parliament, said yesterday: "The atmosphere prevailing did not give rise to the conduct of free, fair and credible elections."

Khumalo called for a fresh election to be held "as soon as possible" and urged African and regional leaders to "engage the broader political leadership in Zimbabwe about a negotiated transitional settlement".

Mbeki, SADC’s mediator in Zimbabwe, did not attend a regional meeting on the country’s crisis in Swaziland last week. SADC leaders present condemned the violence in Zimbabwe, saying the environment did not support a free and fair election.

Sources said SADC would in the end claim Mugabe’s election was "legitimate, although not free and fair". This would be similar to the position taken by Mbeki’s government in 2002 after Mugabe’s controversial reelection then.

Mbeki’s key envoys on the Zimbabwe crisis, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi and legal adviser Mujanku Gumbi, spent two weeks in Zimbabwe trying to find a breakthrough.

Mufamadi and Gumbi returned to SA on Friday after meeting all three negotiating parties—the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe’s ruling Zanu (PF). Sources said Mbeki’s team secured firm commitments to dialogue and the need for a government of national unity.

"There is now common ground but the question is what kind of arrangement will this dialogue produce?" another source said.

Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have expressed willingness to talk and it now appears necessary for them to find a way of working together.

Mugabe wants to be on top, while on the basis of his win in March Tsvangirai also wants the leading role. Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in March but failed to get enough of a majority to form a govern-ment.

Mugabe has been softening up since last week on the issue of talking to Tsvangirai. Yesterday he showed he was amenable by inviting Tsvangirai to his inauguration. Mugabe spokesman George Charamba said the invitation was issued "in the spirit of the president’s wish to reach out ... towards political engagement".

Tsvangirai rejected the invitation, saying the inauguration was pointless after an illegitimate poll.

" I can’t give support to an exercise I’m opposed to. The whole world has condemned it, the Zimbabwean people will not give this exercise legitimacy or support."

But Tsvangirai said he was prepared to talk and suggested Mugabe could be a ceremonial president and he prime minister.

Before any agreement was reached, the MDC leader said, he would ask the AU not to recognise Mugabe’s re-election.

AU leaders are meeting today in Egypt. Mbeki and other leaders are pressing Mugabe to form a government of national unity with Tsvangirai.

Sources said Mbeki would soon be sending his envoys to Harare to work out the details.

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