South African President Thabo Mbeki was scheduled to visit Zimbabwe this weekend to meet the country’s political rivals, his government said on Friday, amid signs power-sharing talks have moved closer to a deal.
The trip by Mbeki, who mediates in negotiations between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s party and the Zimbabwe opposition, comes after more than two weeks of discussions in South Africa between representatives of the rival sides.
“He’s going Saturday to meet the leaders of the political parties involved in the SADC-mandated talks facilitated by South Africa,” South African Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said, referring to the Southern African Development Community regional bloc.
Mbeki will meet Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, as well as the leader of a smaller MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, the spokesman said.
It was unclear whether the meetings would be held separately or in one session.
South African newspaper Business Day reported that Mugabe and Tsvangirai would meet today as the two sides draw nearer to a power-sharing agreement.
In a sign the two sides were moving closer to an agreement, the parties issued a joint statement earlier this week calling for an end to political violence.
The main sticking points in the talks are believed to involve what roles Mugabe and Tsvangirai would play in a power-sharing government.
Sources in Tsvangirai’s party have said, however, that Mugabe’s negotiators have so far only offered Tsvangirai one of several vice-presidential posts.
The ruling ZANU-PF party has insisted Mugabe be recognized as president as part of any deal.
But pressure, both internationally and regionally, has built on Mugabe to reach a deal, analysts said, making it likely an accord is within reach.
“For ZANU-PF, it’s a matter of political survival,” said Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist from the University of Zimbabwe. “ZANU-PF has been put into a corner by domestic and international pressure, and that corner is shrinking.”
He said “a settlement will be reached, but what remains to be seen is whether the agreement can be implemented.”
Discussions have reportedly included offers of amnesty from prosecution for Mugabe if he agrees to take on a more ceremonial role as president.
Olmo von Meijenfeldt of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa said it would likely be impossible to reach a deal without Mugabe retaining some political role since his hardline backers include high-ranking military members.
“A deal making Robert Mugabe a ceremonial president and Morgan Tsvangirai a prime minister is probably the one and only way forward now in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“It will not be realistic or feasible for now to leave Mugabe out completely from the political scene,” he said.
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
Through a basement door in southeastern Turkey lies a sprawling underground city — perhaps the country’s largest — which one historian believes dates back to the ninth century BC. Archeologists stumbled upon the city-under-a-city “almost by chance” after an excavation of house cellars in Midyat, near the Syrian border, led to the discovery of a vast labyrinth of caves in 2020. Workers have already cleared more than 50 subterranean rooms, all connected by 120m of tunnel carved out of the rock. However, that is only a fraction of the site’s estimated 900,000m2 area, which would make it the largest underground city in Turkey’s
Soaring high across a gorge in the rugged Himalayas, a newly finished bridge would soon help India entrench control of disputed Kashmir and meet a rising strategic threat from China. The Chenab Rail Bridge, the highest of its kind in the world, has been hailed as a feat of engineering linking the restive Kashmir valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time. However, its completion has sparked concern among some in a territory with a long history of opposing Indian rule, already home to a permanent garrison of more than 500,000 soldiers. India’s military brass say the strategic benefits
‘RADICAL LEFT LUNATIC’: Trump earlier criticized Kamala Harris, his new opponent, calling her ‘the ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on voters to defend the country’s democracy as he explained his decision to drop his bid for re-election and throw his support behind US Vice President Kamala Harris. As “the defense of democracy is more important than any title,” Biden said that he was stepping aside to deliver an implicit repudiation of former US president Donald Trump in his first public address since his announcement on Sunday that he would not be the Democratic candidate. He did not name Trump, whom he has called an existential threat to democracy. “Nothing, nothing can come in the