SA demands end to violence

A senior South African official said this week that conditions had to be created to end the rural violence in Zimbabwe and
the occupation of more than 1,000 white-owned farms by independence war veterans and supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

Sipho Pityana, Director General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said in an address to the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), that "all parties should find an amicable solution to the problem".

He cited four objectives outlined by President Thabo Mbeki: That a commitment is obtained to solve the Zimbabwe land question under a framework agreed in 1998; that the violence be stopped; that conditions are created for an end to the occupations; and that these objectives are pursued "in a manner that would be beneficial for all the people of Zimbabwe and the rest
of Southern Africa"

He recalled that South Africa has engaged several world leaders to help fund the land resettlement programme "as a matter of urgency".

He said a group of 20 South African parliamentarians had joined a Southern African Development Community observer team sent to monitory the 24-25 June parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe.

"These observers will have the responsibility to draw to the attention of relevant authorities any problems detected so that these may be attended to in a timely manner in order to protect the integrity of the electoral process rather than wait until the end only to pronounce on the fairness or otherwise of the elections," Pityana said.