Mbeki confident that Zimbabwe elections will be successful

By David Masango

PRETORIA, South Africa- President Thabo Mbeki is confident that Zimbabwe will hold free and fair elections in March next year.
This after the South African government, in its mediation efforts to resolve the ongoing economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe, agreed with the ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that they should focus on ensuring that next year’s election would be successful.

“We have agreed with them that in March next year Zimbabwe will have parliamentary and presidential elections,” Mbeki told journalists at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Sunday following last week’s mid-year Cabinet meeting.
“So it’s important when those elections take place the results should not be contested.
“In other words, we must indeed have elections in Zimbabwe that are free and fair and therefore produce a government that will be accepted by all the people of Zimbabwe as a legitimate government emerging out of a democratic process.”

He said it was therefore necessary to make sure that everything was done to achieve this outcome, adding that the South African government was “quite confident” that the agreement would be reached.
“It is an important step with regard to economic recovery in Zimbabwe, because that is the [objective], and a major challenge and would have to be led by a government whose legitimacy should not be contested. “
He told reporters that South Africa, as a neighbor to Zimbabwe, would “inevitably” carry the biggest burden of the consequences of any negative development in Zimbabwe.

Earlier this year, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mandated Mbeki to mediate between Zanu-PF and the MDC to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe, while tasking SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salomao to look into the economic situation in Zimbabwe. •