MDC delivers snub for SA observers

MDC delivers snub for SA observers

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By Staff Reporter

THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has delivered a protest snub on South African observers after their head of delegation told reporters on arrival in Harare that the March 31 elections would be free and fair.

MDC sources told New Zimbabwe.com last night that the South African observers who started arriving in the country last week had met a frosty welcome so far.

"We have decided that the South Africans have already made-up their minds about this election...they are beyond reasonable dialogue," a senior party official said.

"We have accorded the South Africans preferrential attention in the past, but not this time. There is no point because they are convinced Robert Mugabe is right and the rest are wrong. The MDC now feels we should look elsewhere for friends," the source said.

The boiling anger within the MDC exploded last week when the party's secretary general Welshman Ncube said President Thabo Mbeki was "misinformed" about the situation in Zimbabwe.

On Wednesday, Professor Ncube returned to his theme in an interview with the independent SW Radio Africa which broadcasts from England.

Ncube told us that the opposition party is "very angry" and "shocked" by statements made by South Africa's Labour Minister and leader of that country's observer mission Membathisi Mdladlana that the elections would be free and fair.

Professor Ncube said the MDC was painfully aware that most of the observers that have been invited were allowed in because Mugabe believes that they will pass a favourable verdict on the elections.
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