{"id":13541,"date":"2012-08-16T02:47:03","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T00:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/zuma-urges-zimbabwe-political-reforms-ahead-of-polls\/"},"modified":"2012-08-16T02:47:03","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T00:47:03","slug":"zuma-urges-zimbabwe-political-reforms-ahead-of-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/zuma-urges-zimbabwe-political-reforms-ahead-of-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuma urges Zimbabwe political reforms ahead of polls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Nelson Banya<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

HARARE<\/span> Aug 15 (Reuters) – South African President Jacob
\nZuma on Wednesday urged Zimbabwe’s rival leaders to speed up
\npolitical reforms seen as critical to avoiding another violent
\nand disputed election, but President Robert Mugabe signalled he
\nwould not be pushed into endorsing a new constitution already
\naccepted by his foes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists after a series of meetings with
\nMugabe and his rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Zuma
\nsaid there was some progress on a new constitution, but minor
\nhitches remained.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Local political analysts say Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, which was
\nforced to into a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai’s
\nMovement for Democratic Change (MDC) following a disputed poll
\nin 2008, is likely to stall agreement on a draft charter to
\nreverse proposals eroding sweeping presidential powers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Zuma, who is mediating the Zimbabwe crisis, said he had
\ndiscussed various issues with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Welshman
\nNcube, leader of a small MDC wing.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I think from what I have gathered, there has been some
\nmovement forward, although there are some hitches here and
\nthere, but they are not as major as they used to be,” he said,
\nadding that would report his findings to a summit of the
\n15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in
\nMozambique this weekend.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Zuma was in Harare on Wednesday to nudge the Zimbabwean
\nleaders to agree to a plan for elections that are expected in
\nthe next year or two.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Tsvangirai said they primarily discussed progress on a draft
\nconstitution recently presented to the rival parties after three
\nyears of political bickering. He noted Mugabe’s party had yet to
\nendorse the proposed charter.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked if the final decision on the constitution will be made
\nby the leaders of the coalition parties, Tsvangirai, who accuses
\nMugabe of rigging elections to retain power, said there was no
\nsuch provision in their power-sharing agreement.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nelson Banya HARARE Aug 15 (Reuters) – South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday urged Zimbabwe’s rival leaders to speed up political reforms seen as critical to avoiding another violent and disputed election, but President Robert Mugabe signalled he would not be pushed into endorsing a new constitution already accepted by his foes. Speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}