HARARE – Regional powerhouse South Africa is determined to prevent another sham election in neighbouring Zimbabwe as happened three years ago, outgoing German ambassador to Zimbabwe Albrecht Conze said on Thursday.

Conze, among the few diplomats in Harare who have spoken out against President Robert Mugabe’s controversial rule, said signals he was getting from South Africa were that Pretoria would push for credible elections in Zimbabwe to end a political crisis seen as blotting on the image of the region.

“All the signals I am getting from Pretoria and Johannesburg are pointing to that South Africans are determined and make sure that this region will never again experience an election that Zimbabwe experienced in 2008. That is a very deep determination of President Zuma,” Conze told journalists.

“I have just been to South Africa and I could sense that from my discussion there. He (Zuma) does not want the world to look at the SADC and say what is that,” added the diplomat, who is leaving Harare after a three-year tour of duty.

Zuma is the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s official mediator between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The South African leader wants the Zimbabwean rivals to agree to delay elections until a new constitution is in place as well as an election charter with clear benchmarks such as the role of security forces and how to smoothly transfer power in order to avoid a repetition of the 2008 electoral fiasco.

But Zuma faces stiff resistance from Mugabe and his ZANU (PF) party who says the SADC brokered coalition government with Tsvangirai has become dysfunctional and elections must be held this year to choose a new administration.

Zimbabwe’s pro-Mugabe military generals, without whose support there can be no peaceful transition in Zimbabwe, are also pushing for early elections -- to complicate matters for Zuma.

But Conze said he was optimistic that Zuma backed by other regional leaders will successfully pressure Mugabe to accept the need to implement all required democratic reforms before holding polls.

Zimbabwe’s elections have in the past been blighted by violence and charges of vote rigging, which saw the European Union and United States slapping sanctions on Mugabe and senior members of ZANU (PF).

The 2008 vote ended in stalemate after Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe for the first time but election officials withheld results for five weeks, only to call for a run-off vote, which was marred by violence and boycotted by Tsvangirai citing deaths among his supporters at the hands of ZANU (PF).

Mugabe was elected unopposed but the veteran President’s blood-soaked victory was rejected by the international community including some of his African allies forcing him to agree to form a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai. 

By Zimonline