Published by the government of Zimbabwe
9 July 2009
Harare — Former South Africa director-general in the Office of the President Reverend Frank Chikane has blasted the West for meddling in Zimbabwe's internal affairs and dictating to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai conditions for aid.
Speaking at a conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Reverend Chikane defended the formation of the inclusive Government through a Global Political Agreement signed between President Mugabe's Zanu-PF, PM Tsvangirai's MDC-T and the Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara's MDC formation.
The conference was organised by the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa under the theme "Constitution on Zimbabwe".
"There are three parties that agreed on the GPA but then there are people who now say they don't accept it. I don't have a problem with international support but I have problem when they dictate. They must allow Tsvangirai to make his own decisions at this critical time to help Zimbabwe even if they don't agree to some of his decisions."
According to media reports, Rev Chikane accused the West of withholding development funds from the inclusive Government.
"It is a transitional government," Chikane said. "It's not perfect. There is no perfect political solution, there is no perfect way of solving a problem but it gives them (Zimbabwe political parties) the possibility to resolve their problems."
Rev Chikane, who was part of former president Thabo Mbeki's facilitation team leading to the signing of the GPA in September last year, said they facilitated for an inclusive Government rather than a political leader that could have turned the situation into "that of the 1994 Rwanda genocide era".
South Africa, and the Southern African Development Community feel the move to settle for an inclusive government following the free and fair general elections held in March 2008, which left no clear winner between President Mugabe and PM Tsvangirai were characterised by too much foreign interference by the West world's so-called superpowers.
Rev Chikane said South Africa, Sadc and the AU knew quite well that the political volatility in Zimbabwe was "fragile" and needed to be handled with care to avoid more bloodshed or civil disturbances.
He also took a swipe at "anti-Zimbabwe" elements attending the meeting.
"Those that came here expecting me to take sides on the Zimbabwean issues will feel sorry for themselves because I would not do it. There are diplomatic ways of continuously engaging the new inclusive Government of Zimbabwe to attain its intended objectives through diplomatic ways.
"But prior to the presidential election re-run, some superpowers from the West had a preferred candidate as Zimbabwe's head of state despite a clear election outcome which had no winner.
"A lot of relentless pressure was exerted on South Africa, Sadc and African Union to allow their preferred candidate to be the new leader and we stood our ground on the basis that the election outcome had no clear winner hence settling on the government of inclusive," said Rev Chikane.
He also insisted that the situation in Zimbabwe was "very delicate" and "fragile" so much that it needed handling with care hence the need for the inclusive government.
"We needed an inclusive government on a temporary basis so as to allow the parties involved to create a people-driven constitution within the period of 18 months. We do not know what would happen after 18 months, but the bottom line is that we would have created space for free and fair elections," said Rev Chikane.
He said to support MDC under PM Tsvangirai as the winner of the March general election would not have made any sense because all the three parties failed to garner the mandatory 51 percent vote required to form a new democratic government.
But Professor John Makumbe, who was one of the key speakers, argued that the Mbeki administration lacked consultative strategies with Zimbabwe's churches, civil societies, NGOs and the people themselves in order to come up with a peace settlement with the backing of the majority.
Prof Makumbe went on to attack the Mbeki administration as a government of "people with little thinking" compared to the new Jacob Zuma administration, prompting Rev Chikane to lose patience at some stage in the meeting.
Rev Chikane even threatened to walk out of the meeting saying it was not a platform for "personal attacks.
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