afrol News, 19 May - In a direct contrast to his infamous statement 'No crisis-what crisis' on Zimbabwe, South African President Thabo Mbeki has deployed a team of people to deal with issues of violence and conflict as Zimbabweans prepare for 27 June run-off elections. "We placed them there to stop the violence," Mr Mbeki said.

Speaking after an International Investment Council last Sunday, President Mbeki noted that it was very important that Zimbabwean people vote in a free and fair environment for all. "People must be able to choose a leader freely," the South African daily newspaper, 'Sowetan' today quoted him as saying.

According to the paper, Mr Mbeki also said that he suspected that "some people" were carrying out "a sustained campaign" against him. "I heard Mugabe was hiding in a presidential place in Pretoria... that we were arrested in 1992 for drug smuggling... and that either my wife Zanele or I were related to Grace Mugabe," he said, adding these were complete fabrications.

"I'm interested in tracking down who originated the fabrications because it seems like it is a sustained campaign to paddle all manner of falsehoods." Jokingly, he said when he saw Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe now, he started shaking.

Meanwhile his cabinet minister has further called on Zimbabwe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) party to "surrender power" to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said Zanu PF had "only itself to blame" if it had lost the confidence of Zimbabweans to the degree that it could win elections only by intimidating people or rigging polls.

"Any attempt by ZANU (PF) to cling to power through overt or covert violence will only compound its problems by stripping it even further of the legitimacy it won by leading the Zimbabwean people in their struggle for independence, freedom and democracy," Mr Jordan added.

President Mbeki's government has previously been criticised for their quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe's authoritarian President Mugabe. Mr Mbeki's critics have included his own party members from the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

ANC President Jacob Zuma was recently quoted in the media during his recent tour of Europe that "It is even more tragic that other world leaders who witness repression pretend it is not happening." He said this at the same time indicating that Mbeki as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) chosen mediator between Mugabe and opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai was acting biased. "You cannot have a mediator posing in public holding hands with the other party he is supposed to mediate. That makes it hard to believe in his objectivity in the matter," Mr Zuma said.

President Mbeki made headlines recently for publicly holding hands with President Mugabe shortly after the Zimbabwean elections were not published following opposition MDC swept the parliamentary elections by majority vote. Mr Mbeki declared that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe while reports of violent actions particularly on the residents of areas widely believed as MDC strongholds were already pervading the media.

Mr Zuma defeated President Mbeki on the ANC presidential elections last November during the party's national congress. His victory over the incumbent Thabo Mbeki capped a stunning comeback, two years after he sacked him from his position as national deputy president when his financial advisor was convicted of fraud.

For the final 18 months of his term as national president, Mbeki has been facing a competing centre of power in the ANC as Mr Zuma tries to assert the power of the party over the government, according to analysts.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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