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South Africa’s new president Jacob Zuma is meeting with leaders in Zimbabwe in an effort to end the political infighting there and help repair the shattered economy. Anchor Jeb Sharp finds out more from reporter Andrew Meldrum.
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JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp. This is The World. The government of Zimbabwe can be described as a troubled marriage between political enemies. Well the marriage councilor has arrived. South African President Jacob Zuma is on his first state visit to Zimbabwe and he’s on a mission to end the in-fighting between the country’s coalition partners. President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai formed a unity government in February. Since then there’s been lots of in-fighting and little or no progress when it comes to fixing Zimbabwe’s shattered economy. Journalist Andrew Meldrum reported from more than two decades. He says South Africa’s president has gone there with a clear agenda.
ANDREW MELDRUM: Jacob Zuma is taking this opportunity on his first visit as president of South Africa to Zimbabwe to speak to Robert Mugabe and to speak to the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai to say you’ve got to get things to work there. Robert Mugabe had said oh Jacob Zuma is coming up to address our agricultural show. We’re not going to discuss any … . And his press said for weeks there’s no discussion of the political situation in Zimbabwe. But Jacob Zuma’s party said, before he went, yes there is going to be a discussion. We’ve got to make sure that things in Zimbabwe are going to work. So that is what Jacob Zuma’s doing in Zimbabwe.
SHARP: And what specifically though is Jacob Zuma’s role? Why him?
MELDRUM: Well he’s the leader of the most powerful country in Southern Africa. He is the leader of the most economically huge economy in the region and so he wants to see Zimbabwe succeed. And South Africa has a great amount of pressure that it can bare on Zimbabwe. It controls electricity that goes to Zimbabwe. It controls the truck routes that bring in imports to Zimbabwe. And so you know it has a lot of levers that it can use to try and encourage what thinks are more positive developments in Zimbabwe.
SHARP: In that sense is this a critical moment?
MELDRUM: It is a critical moment because right now there has been a government of national unity that has been formed but it hasn’t brought progress. And so Zimbabwe is really in a state of limbo where things aren’t getting worse – but they could hardly get worse – but they’re not really getting much better. And so you know it … . And it could stay in this uneasy equilibrium for some time. And we already see a situation where their warning that cholera could break out in Zimbabwe with the rains again this year. We thought that that was over. And so this, what we’re seeing, is this uneasy limbo that Zimbabwe is in could make the people of Zimbabwe suffer.
SHARP: And do you see Jacob Zuma as taking a side in this?
MELDRUM: He’s going to be very careful not to take a side; to say that he’s the you know the neutral broker and that he’s trying to do things for the best of Zimbabwe and for the best of southern Africa in general. However by not taking sides he will probably come out more critical of Robert Mugabe. Because in the past the previous president, Thabo Mbeki, was really a supporter of Robert Mugabe and he helped to enable Robert Mugabe to continue in power. Jacob Zuma, by being more neutral, is going to be putting more pressure on Robert Mugabe.
SHARP: Zimbabwe will no doubt be asking South Africa for help. I mean billions of aid it wants to sort of revive the civil service and get going. What’s your thought there?
MELDRUM: Zimbabwe needs billions of dollars in aid to turn the economy around but it has a fundamentally strong economy if it can get its agriculture started again; if it can get its industry going again. These can all work. But it’s not South Africa who has the key to that kind of aid. It is the United States, Britain, the European Union, and especially the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. And they are keeping their purse strings closed. And it’s not over economic policies; it’s over human rights policies. They say return the country to the rule of law. And these are things that Jacob Zuma is going to say to Robert Mugabe. I can help you economically but you have got to show that you have returned the rule of law to Zimbabwe.
SHARP: Andrew Meldrum reported from Zimbabwe for 23 years. He’s now senior editor at Global Post dot com in Boston. Thanks Andrew.
MELDRUM: Thank you very much.
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