Zimbabwe’s opposition leader called for a new mediator on Wednesday after saying fresh power-sharing talks had made no progress, warning a humanitarian crisis posed an unprecedented threat to the country.
Morgan Tsvangirai said relations with former South African president Thabo Mbeki, the region’s long-time mediator, had irretrievably broken down because of his bias toward Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe’s government meanwhile insisted that it had a mass outbreak of cholera under control, a claim refuted by South Africa, which said a humanitarian crisis was now plaguing Zimbabwe.
“The humanitarian crisis that is now engulfing all Zimbabweans represents the greatest threat ever to face our country,” Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said in a statement.
“While millions face starvation in the coming months, the death toll from cholera is now sitting at over 50 people per day and will increase dramatically now that the rainy season has begun in earnest,” he said.
The UN has warned that Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak could snowball across southern Africa, with nearly 9,000 cases and 366 deaths reported so far.
The epidemic hit as Zimbabwe’s chronic food shortages are worsening, with nearly half the population expected to need food aid in January.
The former union leader accused Mugabe of trying to cover up the problem, and said Mbeki was siding with the ruling ZANU-PF party in the unity talks, which resumed on Tuesday in South Africa.
Tsvangirai said he had written to South African President Kgalema Motlanthe “detailing the irretrievable state of our relationship with Mr Mbeki and asking that he recuse himself.”
“His partisan support of ZANU-PF, to the detriment of genuine dialogue, has made it impossible for the MDC to continue negotiating under his facilitation,” Tsvangirai said. “The Mugabe team negotiates as though their priority is to cover up the problem rather than solve it.”
“In the absence of any progress in the talks, the MDC is now committing itself to addressing the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Tsvangirai spokesman George Sibotshiwe said the MDC was ready to continue with talks, if a new mediator is appointed.
“We’ll speak with ZANU-PF, but not with Mbeki,” he said. “Motlanthe has to sort out the problem with the facilitator.”
The latest talks were called to settle differences over a constitutional amendment that would create a new post of prime minister, designated for Tsvangirai.
Meanwhile, in the strongest call yet for action from Africa, Botswana’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that Zimbabwe’s neighbors should close their borders in an attempt to bring down Mugabe.
Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani told BBC World News that southern African countries have failed to move Mugabe with mediation and they should now impose sanctions.
The leaders should “tell Mugabe to his face, ‘Look, now you are on your own, we are switching off, we are closing your borders’ and I don’t think he would last. If no petrol went in for a week, he can’t last,” Skelemani said.
US Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee also called for Africans to be more forceful.
“The most important pressure will come from this region,” he told the annual dinner of the Commercial Farmers’ Union of white farmers, most of whom have been forced from their land in government-sanctioned seizures.
The Southern African Development Community and the African Union “need to stand up and force there to be respect for the will of the people,” McGee said.
Botswana and Zambia have been lonely African voices against Mugabe as Zimbabwe has been engulfed in an economic and political crisis in which agriculture, health and education services have collapsed and shortages of food, clean water, medicine, electricity and fuel have become routine.
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