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Deputy President of the ANC Jacob Zuma will officially open a four-day elections analysis seminar, featuring former Southern African liberation movements in Johannesburg from 13 to 16 October. The seminar is hosted by the African National Congress and will be attended by high powered delegations of former liberation movements, MPLA of Angola, Frelimo of Mozambique, Swapo of Namibia and Zanu-PF of Zimbabwe. The official opening will be on Saturday October 14. The seminar will go under the theme: "Working for peace, stability, democracy and integrated development in Southern Africa." The delegations will start arriving on Friday October 13, to join their South African hosts for the seminar. The seminar will analyze elections in Southern Africa with the view to sharing experiences, strengthen party-to-party relations and cooperation with the view to deepening the gains of the revolution in the region and analyze the balance of forces in Southern Africa, as well as consolidate progressive forces in the region, according to a press release from the ANC. Respective country presentations will focus on major characteristics of the present phase of struggle or transformation, programme of the party in this phase, mobilisation of social and motive forces in support of this programme. They will also focus on the analysis of forces against change and transformation as well as on regional and global issues. Also brought under the spotlight will be the impact of election results on the balance of forces and on peace, democracy, development and stability in particular countries and in the region. The seminar will also focus on election strategy and message, voter mobilization programmes, analysis of election results in terms of the social composition of the party support and that of the opposition as well as trends in different provinces of a particular country. The delegations will be led by senior leaders of their respective parties. The South African delegation will be led by ANC Secretary- General, Kgalema Motlanthe, while Secretary-General of the ruling MPLA Party, Joao Lourenco will lead the Angolan delegation. Frelimo's Secretary- General, Emmanuel Tome will lead the Mozambican entourage, while SWAPO's Deputy Secretary- General, John Pandeni will head the Namibian delegation. Zanu-PF's national chairperson, who is also Zimbabwe's Minister of Home Affairs, John Nkomo, will lead the Zimbabwean delegation to the seminar. The five movements/parties have maintained close links from their very beginning. Their support to each other was particularly essential during their fight for freedom. The ANC obtained substantial aid from its sister movements during the fight against apartheid. This is the background for the continued cooperation between the parties, although their present positions are significantly diverging. The neighbour states have held a low profile in the critics of President Mugabe's dictatorial style and calls for violence, and on many occasions defended him. Although Mugabe has called on the landless people in Namibia and South Africa to follow the example of occupation of farms owned by whites in Zimbabwe, there have been no official protests. The South African and Namibian governments are working on their own land reforms, and intent to find peaceful and legal ways to solve their problem. Also on the Zimbabwe involvement in Congo Kinshasa, widely criticized in Zimbabwe, most leaders are allies. The only critical voice against Mugabe has been from former President Nelson Mandela, agreeing with the Zimbabwean opposition that it was time for the president to step down, as Mandela did himself. Source:
African National Congress (ANC)
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