AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - “The time of talking is over: Mugabe should step down”: Southern African Bishops take a firm stance, as South Africa hosts yet another meeting on the Zimbabwe crisis

Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) - “The appalling tragedy in Zimbabwe means that the time of talking is over. Six months of talks have resulted only in a stalemate. It is clear that the present mediation and negotiations have failed the people of Zimbabwe yet again,” says a statement sent to Fides from Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, President of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, and the Bishops of Botswana, South Africa, and Swaziland, who are gathered in Pretoria (South Africa) for their Plenary Assembly (see Fides 23/1/2009). “Ten months after the harmonised elections in March 2008, widely regarded as expressing the will of the people of Zimbabwe, President Mugabe and his Cabal cling to power illegitimately,” the statement says. President Mugabe has in fact rejected the voting results, causing a severe political crisis that worsened an already terrible economic and sanitary situation. Thanks to South Africa's mediation effort, on September 15 in Harare they reached an accord that decided that Mugabe would remain President and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai would become Prime Minister.
This accord, however, has not been implemented (see Fides 20/1/2009). Today, January 26, the extraordinary Summit for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) begins in Pretoria, in search of a compromise that would lead to the formation of a government of national unity between President Mugabe and the opposition.
“SADC must stop supporting and giving credibility to the illegitimate Mugabe regime with immediate effect. Failing this, SADC Leaders accept complicity in creating the conditions that have resulted in starvation, displacement, disease and death for ordinary Zimbabweans. This is nothing short of passive genocide,” the statement from the Bishops says.
“We, the Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa, call on Mugabe to step down immediately. We call for the formation of a coalition interim government of National Recovery and the preparation for internationally supervised and credible presidential elections as soon as possible,” the statement concludes. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 26/1/2009)