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16 April 2008

Question: Mr President, the meeting has come and gone as President of the United Nations (UN) Security Council for this month, are you satisfied you have managed to achieve what you set out to?

Answer: Yes, we are very happy indeed, it was very successful. One of the people I saw, the last person I saw at the United Nations was the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon and he said he wanted to congratulate us on what was indeed a very successful meeting from all points of view – the attendance and the focus of everybody on the issue on the agenda which is a very important question for us as Africans – the question of peace and security on the African continent and the role of the UN in that process.

There was unanimity that there must therefore be put in place the process to identify the specific measures that need to be taken to translate this desire for better co-operation between the African Union and the United Nations in order to improve efficacy with regard to these matters of peace and peacekeeping on the continent. So, it was then agreed that the Secretary-General would, within the next three months, set up a high level panel that would then make proposals on the specific things that need to be done.

We are hoping that as a result of this, the capacity of the African continent to deal with the challenges of peace and security will be strengthened, that it will result in better co-operation between the United Nations and the African Union on those matters and therefore help us to speed up the process of really ensuring that we deal with this problem of peace and security which is critical in itself and in relation to all other issues on the continent – development, etc.

This was a highly successful meeting and indeed, I am very pleased that everybody who participated in it is of the same mind.

Question: Mr President, the Secretary-General is going to put together a panel from the UN and the African Union (AU) – will this be to look at the modalities, funding – what exactly will the mandate of this panel be?

Answer: To look at every element – what are the practical things that need to be done to achieve this objective of an improved response to these challenges of peace and security on the continent – there are financial questions, logistical questions, questions of giving more authority to the African Union and the African regions to lead these processes so that the United Nations comes in a supportive way – so all elements that have to do with the challenges of responding to peace and security on the continent. It must make recommendations about that.

Question: Mr President, I assume this is not just in relation to Africa? This would extend to other regional bodies around the world?

Answer: It should, but this particular meeting focused on Africa. I would imagine, yes, the United Nations would have to deal with all regions, but I am quite certain that taking into account the discussion that has taken place, and the discussion that will take place tomorrow between the UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council, that indeed it will cover whatever specifics emanate from the African situation.

Question: Mr President, there was a lot of hype ahead of your arrival to the effect that Zimbabwe should be hauled before the UN Security Council. The United States and Britain have been noted as doing this.

Answer: What I noted in comments by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the United States Ambassador was support for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) processes and indeed, as far as they are concerned, but said they do hope that SADC will continue to engage as it has and address all matters that relate to Zimbabwe, which is fine because indeed as you know SADC itself in our last meeting in Lusaka have taken some specific decisions which included SADC deciding that South Africa should continue its facilitation in Zimbabwe, so we will continue that engagement. But they did express support for the SADC initiative.

Question; Mr President, there is some noise about your comments that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is saying there is a crisis; the African National Congress (ANC) is saying there is a crisis. How would the President respond to this?

Answer: What happened is that we were in Harare on Saturday, where I had to see President Mugabe in Harare regarding some of the issues raised by the opposition.

The media was there as I left and they asked me about the elections – was what was happening with regard to the elections a crisis? So I asked them to look at what has happened – election campaign has taken place, there is general agreement that it was fine, municipal results have been announced with no problem, the senate results have been announced with no problem, the house of assembly results announced with no problem, dispute about 23 out of 207 seats is a matter that must be finalised. The presidential results have not been announced. So that is what has happened with regard to the elections and then at that point, the High Court was to respond to some application regarding the presidential results. So I suggested we wait for the High Court decision – we do not know what the outcome will be. The Electoral Commission also needs to announce its results. So that is where we are with regard to the elections.

I said Zimbabwe was engaged in a normal electoral process. What was outstanding was the announcement of the Presidential results.

So the second question raised was that, you are on your way to Lusaka to attend a meeting of the region. Did President Mwanawasa say there is a crisis?

I replied by saying, what he said to me was that we needed to meet to assess the situation in Zimbabwe in order to see what we can do to assist and that is all.

This story that I said there is no crisis; I do not have the slightest clue of where it comes from. The question was about the elections – it was not about the socio-economic conditions in Zimbabwe or anything like that. The journalists quite naturally were interested in the elections and asked questions regarding the elections. So that is what happened.

Question: Mr President, what is coming out fiercely is that SADC leaders are going to protect President Mugabe because of historical reasons. How would you defend yourself?

Answer: I have heard that argument as well. When the SADC Summit – it was again an Extraordinary Summit – when we met in Dar-es-Salaam in March last year, it was because we all said it was necessary to discuss again the situation in Zimbabwe, as we had discussed it in the past to see what we should do because as a region we recognised that there were serious problems in Zimbabwe that needed to be discussed and so it was then agreed that we should act as facilitator and talk to both the ruling party and the opposition and bring them together in recognition of the fact that there are problems, and indeed then we sat and looked together with Zanu-PF and the MDC who had all sorts of questions – the laws, the constitution, the way in which the police should behave – just to ensure that we sorted out everything that at least and we agreed about this when we began with both Zanu-PF and the MDC that we needed to create a situation where the election results would not be contested.

There was a second decision taken in Dar-es-Salaam that there were also many things wrong with the economy and therefore the Finance Ministers in the region needed to get together to look at that question to say what is it that needed to be done about the economy.

So, we had taken those decisions not to protect anybody, but in order to address the political and economic challenges being faced in Zimbabwe – honestly and frankly – which are what happened in the political negotiations which is why you had laws changed, you had a new Constitution negotiated – this was precisely to address the things that were wrong.

I do not understand – if we wanted to protect President Mugabe or anybody - we would have had to say there was nothing wrong and therefore there would have been no need to facilitate anything or intervention by Finance Ministers.

We have intervened in Zimbabwe precisely because there are things wrong there and said to the extent we can assist to improve matters than let us do so.

Question: Mr President, if they do call for a second round of elections, are you confident or do you get the sense that it will go off as the first round has done?

Answer: That is what we want – if there is to be a second round we want to again ensure the same conditions of peace prevail, the same situation of freedom of access to all parts of the country by everybody and that all of those other matters that were agreed to, that are part of the law of Zimbabwe, that are part of the regulations governing the elections, all sides should respect this legal framework which was negotiated, agreed and legislated, which fortunately by and large everybody respected in this first round. So, certainly, as facilitator, as the region, we would do everything possible to ensure this situation prevails.

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
16 April 2008