Archbishop backs regional efforts to mediate in Zimbabwe

Published: 2007-07-11

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, has expressed support for regional efforts to mediate in his country's political and economic crisis. At a July 10 news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, to launch the Solidarity Peace Trust's latest report on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, Archbishop Ncube, trust chairman, called African mediation efforts hopeful and urged the international community to support them. In March the Southern African Development Community appointed South African President Thabo Mbeki to act as mediator between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party. The community hoped Mbeki could help pressure Mugabe to enact democratic reforms. In the past, Mugabe has treated Mbeki and other southern African leaders "with a certain amount of disdain" and has "shown us all that he doesn't listen to anyone," Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, said in a July 10 telephone interview.

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