South Africa sees progress in Zimbabwe

South Africa sees progress in Zimbabwe

• Zanu PF, MDC war chest boosted by State funding

• MDC petitions High Court over voters' roll tempering

• Mbeki calls for Sadc intervention in Zim poll

• Mugabe launches 'anti-Blair election'

• Mugabe followers raid police station, officer stabbed

• MDC to take part in election

By Clare Nullis

SOUTH Africa's foreign minister said Tuesday she is satisfied that Zimbabwe is taking steps to ensure free and fair parliamentary elections - even as the country's opposition leaders protest sweeping security measures, arrests and intimidation.

South Africa is one of Zimbabwe's main allies and wields considerable diplomatic leverage over its northern neighbor.

The remarks by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma came as South African President Thabo Mbeki's government has drawn local and international criticism for failing to take a strong stand against political and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, preferring a policy of "quiet diplomacy." But there are signs of strain in the relationship.

Last week, a Zimbabwe court convicted three people of selling state secrets to South Africa. Zimbabwe has also twice barred the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions, allied to Mbeki's African National Congress party, from sending fact-finding missions to the country ahead of the vote.

Dlamini-Zuma sidestepped a question Tuesday on whether South African authorities would allow COSATU members to blockade the border with Zimbabwe in a planned protest of President Robert Mugabe's increasingly autocratic rule. But she implied the government would take a dim view of the situation.

"We will abide by the laws of our country," she told a news conference. "I don't know if there is a country which says that anyone can go and blockade borders."

Dlamini-Zuma welcomed signs that campaigning has been less violent than in previous years but voiced concern at delays by Mugabe's government in issuing invitations to its southern African neighbors to observe the March 31 elections.

The 14-nation Southern African Development Community had been expecting an invitation last week, she said. "But we are still hoping it will materialize," she added.

Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is participating in next month's poll under protest. It says repressive security and media laws, opposition arrests and intimidation give Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party an unfair advantage.

The United States, Britain and some other Western governments have voiced similar concerns.

"So far, the steps that have been taken are according to the SADC guidelines," countered Dlamini-Zuma, referring to the Southern African Development Community.

The election guidelines, adopted in August, include provisions for full political participation, freedom of association, political tolerance and access to state media.

"I was quite heartened to hear the leader of the opposition saying that the violence has declined, and that the police are taking a no-tolerance approach to violence, and that the president of Zimbabwe has also publicly called for a violence-free campaign from supporters," Dlamini-Zuma said. "That to me was the major problem in the last election."

Independent observers said the 2000 legislative poll, in which the opposition won 57 of Parliament's 120 elected seats, was marred by vote rigging and violence blamed on ruling party militants. Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, narrowly won re-election in an equally flawed 2002 vote - AP
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