We have detected that the browser you are using is no longer supported. As a result, some content may not display correctly.
We suggest that you upgrade to the latest version of any of the following browsers:
close notification
Sout
h African President Thabo Mbeki has told US President George W
Bush that Robert Mugabe will relinquish his leadership of
Zimbabwe's ruling party by December, the Independent newspaper
reported today.
Such a move would pave the way for Mugabe's exit as Zimbabwe's
president and new elections by June 2004, the British daily said,
without citing its sources.
It added that Mbeki's assurance to Bush that Mugabe will stand
aside is believed to be based on a personal promise extracted from
the Zimbabwean leader.
The Independent also said Bush had pledged a reconstruction package
for Zimbabwe worth up to $10-billion over an unspecified timeframe,
if a new leader takes over.
The deal was discussed by the two leaders during a private meeting
in Pretoria last week, the paper said in a report by its Southern
Africa correspondent, Basildon Peta, who added that important
differences remained.
Washington is anxious to make the money conditional on the
emergence of a new leader chosen by the Zimbabwe people in an
election rather than an anointed successor from the ranks of the
ruling Zanu-PF party.
Mbeki by contrast, is not a supporter of the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and is open to a successor
emerging from the ruling party, the Independent said.
Bush has called for Mugabe to step down, but Mbeki has publicly
declined to toe the tough US line on Zimbabwe since a political and
social maelstrom enveloped Zimbabwe following a presidential
election last year condemned by the west as rigged. - Sapa-AFP.
Map
