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Written by DUMISANI MULEYA
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Wednesday, 04 November 2009 05:30 |
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe and his political rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai will today attend a regional summit in Maputo, Mozambique, in a bid to thrash out disputes undermining the Harare inclusive government.
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) troika summit in Maputo will show if regional leaders are prepared to take a firmer stance on Zimbabwe. In the past Sadc leaders have skirted the issue and deferred it to the troika.
In the run-up to the Maputo summit, Mugabe and Tsvangirai met Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila, who is Sadc’s chairman.
Mugabe, who was at a regional football tournament on Sunday, sent Vice-President Joyce Mujuru to meet Kabila at the airport. He kept Kabila waiting at a local hotel from Sunday until Monday.
Sources said Mugabe and Kabila’s meeting was “cold” by previous standards. Mugabe has openly suggested the Sadc summit and other related meetings were unnecessary because Zimbabwe’s issues would be resolved internally.
“President Kabila, as Sadc chairman, will listen to all sides in the inclusive government, the marks of progress we have made and the handicaps we have encountered,” Mugabe said. “He will, however, know that we are grown-ups and intelligent people who know that we went into the agreement knowing that there will be handicaps to be met and we need to sit down and discuss the problems.”
After meeting Mugabe earlier on Monday, Kabila met Tsvangirai at a local hotel in the evening.
Tsvangirai consolidated representations to Kabila, which he made recently in Kinshasa. He disengaged his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from government over a series of disputes on the Global Political Agreement. Kabila also met Arthur Mutambara, leader of the other MDC faction.
Meanwhile, senior MDC official Pascal Gwenzere who disappeared recently, resurfaced in remand prison facing charges of stealing guns at a Harare army barracks.
Gwenzere, who was abducted by unidentified men, secretly appeared in court on Saturday on charges of theft of firearms.
Business Day (SA)
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