Additional Zimbabwe mediator 'fake issue'

Additional Zimbabwe mediator 'fake issue' - Pahad

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AN ADDITIONAL mediator to facilitate discussions around the Zimbabwean crisis was a "fake issue", deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday.

"It is a fake issue..... I don't know of any formal position on this, except in the media," he told a press briefing in Pretoria.

He said talks between Zanu-PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change factions were continuing and there had been no indication, to his knowledge, that an additional mediator was needed.

An additional mediator was diverting from the fundamental issue that talks were ongoing.

"I don't believe that any new body....simply to be sitting there is what is required."

Pahad said he had been given no proof to substantiate claims that an additional mediator was needed, allegedly because President Thabo Mbeki was taking sides.

He said earlier reports that AU Commission chairperson Jean Ping was arriving in SA for an "urgent meeting" were not true.

"There is no emergency. If there was an emergency Ping would have been here last week."

Mbeki would meet with Ping on Friday. However this was part of a constant briefing to liase on any progress made in talks to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis, said Pahad. - Sapa
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