South Africa’s former President, Thabo Mbeki, will be coming back to Zimbabwe to continue his mediatorial role before the end of this year.
Speaking to reporters before leaving for South Africa on Wednesday, Mbeki expressed his “interest” in the Zimbabwean situation. He said:
We have been talking to everybody and everybody, of course, is interested to discuss the situation and I am interested too in the situation here, just to understand what has been happening and to say very basically, we support the efforts of the Zimbabweans to address their fundamental challenges.
Whatever the challenges are, (it is important) that everybody gets together, so we have been listening to everybody and we have finished that listening process. So we will come back later this month to continue to finalise that.
Mbeki visited the country on Monday before meeting President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his rival, MDC leader Nelson Chamisa separately, members of the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD), and churches and civic organisations.
The internationally-recognised former statesman facilitated dialogue between Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai (both late), resulting in the formation of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in 2009.