Africa leaders show little appetite for Zim sanctions, intervention

• SA tells Zim leaders to put lives before politics

• Mugabe tells supporters to be ready for new elections

• Post Editorial: Tsvangirai pushing his luck too far

• Zambian newspaper lashes Tsvangirai, warns of 'shifting tide of public opinion'

• Document: Tendai Biti's letter to Mbeki

• Negotiators strike agreement on Constitutional Amendment No. 19

• Talks threatened as Mbeki, Tsvangirai trade barbs

• Mbeki letter 'angers' Tsvangirai

• Zanu PF, MDC negotiators meet in SA

• Elders urge MDC to join unity government

• ANC team to press for Zimbabwe deal

• Motlanthe wants Zim rivals to be sworn-in

• Tsvangirai eyes new Zimbabwe government in 2 months

• South Africa withholds aid to Zimbabwe

• Text: statement by South Africa cabinet on Zimbabwe

• Zimbabwe negotiators set to meet over draft Bill

• Constitutional Amendment 19 draft sent to Mbeki

• Tsvangirai seeks EU support for inclusive government

• MDC (Tsvangirai) national council resolutions

• Tsvangirai's MDC to join unity government

• Tsvangirai running out of options - analysts

• Zanu PF asks Mugabe to form new government

• SADC leans heavily on Tsvangirai to share Home Affairs

• Mugabe vows to form new government

• Document: SADC communique on Zimbabwe, DRC

Posted to the web: 08/12/2008 22:32:13
AFRICAN countries showed little appetite for a new push by western countries to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, as well as growing calls for military intervention.

Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) said much of world effort was misdirected.

“We urge the Zimbabwe leadership to act and... pave the way for a unity government," Zuma said on Monday as the European Union imposed new sanctions on President Robert Mugabe’s government, and the French President said time for negotiations was over.

Zuma said he remained firmly convinced that the course to take was to support former South African President Thabo Mbeki’s efforts to get Zimbabwe’s political rivals to form a power sharing government.

"We need some swift action to deal with the situation in Zimbabwe… and we fully support Mbeki's mediation efforts," Zuma said at the opening of talks in Windhoek with Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba.

In Kenya, foreign minister Moses Wetangula rejected calls by the country’s unity government Prime Minister Raila Odinga who has called for military intervention in Zimbabwe.

Wetangula said the crisis in Zimbabwe did not warrant military intervention, and said new sanctions would ultimately hurt the ordinary people.

"What the Zimbabwe crisis is lacking is a 'father figure' who will guide the talks the way former South African President Thabo Mbeki had guided them until he was removed from office,” Wetangula said, adding he hoped a summit of African Heads of State set for Addis Ababa in January could find a breakthrough.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday added 11 names to a list of Zimbabwean figures banned from entering Europe.

During a speech in Paris to the Elders, a group of world statesmen, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared: “President Mugabe must go. There comes a time when a dictator does not want to hear, does not want to understand, and so my understanding is that heads of states and governments must end discussions.

"It is time to say to Mr Mugabe 'you have taken your people hostage. The people of Zimbabwe have the right to freedom, to security and to respect'."

The crescendo of calls by mainly western nations for action against Mugabe prompted a government spokesman to say Britain is plotting military action.

Mugabe and opposition rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara signed a unity accord on September 15, but the deal has floundered amid disputes about how to divide control of cabinet posts.
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