IRIN Focus on opposition overtures to SADC neighbours

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe, last week held
talks with members of the Botswana government in what he called part of a
planned initiative by his party to engage leaders in the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) more directly in Zimbabwean affairs.

, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe, last week held
talks with members of the Botswana government in what he called part of a
planned initiative by his party to engage leaders in the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) more directly in Zimbabwean affairs.

His talks with senior official in Gaborone, including Foreign Minister
Mompati Merafhe, were widely reported in the press in both countries and
South Africa. The week before, he travelled to South Africa for talks with
the former president, Nelson Mandela, who has publicly suggested that after
20 years in power, President Robert Mugabe should resign.

"The next visit is to Mozambique. We are making arrangements for Mozambique
and South Africa, at least in the short term," Tsvangirai told Zimbabwe's
independent newspaper, 'The Daily News'. "We will of course expand the whole
initiative to other SADC countries."

David Coltart, a Zimbabwean MDC MP and the party's legal affairs advisor,
told IRIN on Monday that Tsvangirai has been sounding out regional officials
on his views that Mugabe should resign and relinquish power before his term
expires in 2002. He had also been "stressing" to them that he would not seek
Mugabe's ouster through unlawful means. "Our goal is to seek Mr Mugabe's
impeachment through the proper parliamentary process," Coltart said
referring to a secret parliamentary impeachment ballot the MDC is calling
this week.

Tsvangirai, whose labour union-based party is barely a year old, gave
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party a major political shock in June this year when
it managed to get 57 candidates into the 150-seat parliament. Although not
sufficient to form a majority, the last parliament held only three
opposition members.

But whether Tsvangirai's talks in Gaborone, Botswana, last Thursday and
Friday, signalled any change of SADC's position towards Zimbabwe and Mugabe
himself, is of less importance than the fact that Tsvangirai realises that
he needs to court the leaders of Zimbabwe's most important neighbours.

"These two countries are Botswana and South Africa," Claude Kabemba, a
foreign policy analyst at the Johannesburg-based Centre for Policy Studies,
told IRIN. "It is not a question of any change in the SADC position here. He
does not want to influence SADC, it is too polarised. But it is a good
strategy from his viewpoint to be talking to Zimbabwe's two most democratic,
important and influential neighbours. It is important that he explains to
them what the opposition is planning in Zimbabwe."

"It will be interesting to see how these neighbours react to the impeachment
process this week," he said. "The situation in Zimbabwe has become very
difficult."