Mbeki tells Mugabe to accept MDC

South African President Thabo Mbeki has told Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to respect the rule of law and publicly assure Zimbabweans and the international community that his government will conduct a free and fair presidential election next year, ‘The Financial Gazette’ said on Thursday.

The newspaper said Mbeki wrote to Mugabe immediately after meeting US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Pretoria two weeks ago. In the letter, Mbeki allegedly told Mugabe to accept the “reality” of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as the official opposition party. In reaction to the letter information minister Jonathan Moyo told the ‘Financial Gazette’ that “Presidents Mbeki and Mugabe are constantly in touch with each other and communicate in all ways”. He added: “And within that communication it would be futile to pick only one type be it a telephone call, correspondence or whatever and then start to say Mbeki has written to Mugabe when in fact that is part of a regular and mutual communication between two brother African presidents.”

Mbeki told South African parliamentarians just after his meeting with Powell that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s deepening political and economic crisis was the failure by Britain to honour its colonial obligation to help resolve the unjust distribution of land. Mbeki refuted allegations that the land issue was being used by Mugabe to shore up his waning popularity and said that Pretoria and the international community should instead help Harare resolve the land problem.