MDC leaders meet Mbeki as mass action looms

MDC leaders meet Mbeki as mass action looms

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S main opposition party said it may launch mass protests to press President Robert Mugabe to enact voting reforms ensuring free and fair parliamentary elections next year.

Mass action and demonstrations were options if Mugabe did not implement real electoral reforms, Movement for Democratic Change secretary general Professor Welshman Ncube told Reuters on Monday after seeing South African President Thabo Mbeki at the weekend.

It was the first time the MDC had made known its intentions after it said last month it would boycott elections until Mugabe's government introduced meaningful reforms.

Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, is accused by critics of a harsh political crackdown as Zimbabwe spins into economic crisis, partly due to the government's seizure of white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.

He has announced plans for electoral reform that have been welcomed by regional governments but has not said when they will come into force. The MDC remained skeptical.

"There are other forms of struggle we will look at like mass action, boycotts and demonstrations to bring about a democratic dispensation because elections are not an end in themselves," said Ncube.

He said three MDC leaders met Mbeki in the South African capital Pretoria and impressed on him the need for an urgent resolution to Zimbabwe's crisis.

Mbeki has admitted his policy of quiet diplomacy has so far failed to make headway, and informal talks between the MDC and Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF have not matured into full negotiations.

There was no immediate comment from Mbeki's office.

Last year marches planned by the MDC were crushed by Mugabe's government and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested and charged with treason.

Ncube said the meeting with Mbeki was part of the MDC's resolution to press Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) leaders to push Mugabe to embrace democratic reforms.

Ncube said MDC ranks did not have radical elements agitating for an armed struggle.

Mugabe's electoral reform plans won backing last month from Zimbabwe's neighbors at a summit of SADC, which proposed similar guidelines as democratic benchmarks for the region.

The Harare government, which was not available to comment on Monday, has given no indication of when it would enact them - Reuters
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