THE two antagonists in Zimbabwe’s unity government – President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai – will be part of the VIPs that will grace the opening ceremony of the historic 2010 FIFA World CupTM,according to The Zimbabwean.

They were invited by South African President Jacob Zuma, who according to analysts is battling to restore the confidence he is losing from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) following a controversial visit to Zimbabwe by African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema in April.

Zuma is acting as mediator to help resolve Zimbabwe’s political crisis. Despite forming a government of national unity, Zanu (PF) and the two MDCs are still locked in a power struggle that continues to put Zimbabwe in the political limelight.
FIFA confirmed this week that both Mugabe and Tsvangirai were on the list of invited VIPs and will take their place among other heads of state from Africa and other parts of the world during a ceremony on Friday that will mark the opening of the first World Cup on African soil.

“Yes, the two (Mugabe and Tsvangirai have been invited but I am not the right person to indicate whether they will be coming or not,” said a FIFA official, who requested to remain anonymous.  

Some political commentators have been quick to point out that Zuma was attempting to rebuild the trust from the MDC, which was broken after Malema,  a prominent ANC figure, belittled Tsvangirai and his colleagues during joint rallies with Zanu (PF) during his visit to Zimbabwe in April.

However, insiders from the ANC said the invitation of the two Zimbabwe leaders showed that Zuma was being neutral.
“The two will be expected to seat side by side and the invitation shows that he (Zuma) is not biased towards any party in the government of national unity. Sport has the ability to unite people and we hope that the two will be thinking about taking the necessary steps to ensure that their country is united,” said a source within the ANC.      
Richard Strausfield, a political analyst, pointed out that the invitation by Zuma, was a classical case of closing the gates when the horses had already bolted out.

He said: “He (Zuma) cannot fool anybody because we all know that he supports Zanu (PF) and this is why he can never say anything critical about Mugabe or any of his policies.

“To me, the invitations are meant to paint a picture that both of the guests are regarded by Zuma on equal footing and this comes about because of the actions of Julius Malema.
“If Zuma was impartial, he would not have let the youth president of his party go to Zimbabwe and insult the MDC in the way in which Malema did. This is damage control in progress here because the MDC have come out and criticised the approach of the ANC towards them.”

Malema stalled Zuma’s mediation process when he publicly voiced his support for Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980.
Statements such as “We will never respect the MDC because they are not a liberation movement”, infuriated the MDC and its huge band of supporters while doing a lot of harm to Zuma’s efforts at finding a peaceful and lasting solution to the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

Malema’s statement on Zimbabwean political issues caused a diplomatic embarrassment of massive proportions and did not go down well with some senior members of the ANC, who had been against his visit in the first place. His utterances were one of the reasons why the youth league president was summoned before a disciplinary hearing by the party’s powerful National Executive Committee (NEC).

By The Zimbabwean