SOUTH AFRICA: Angry protestors urge South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to step down as Zimbabwe mediator

Record ID: 454419

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Angry protestors urge South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to step down as Zimbabwe mediator
  • Date: 16th April 2008
  • Summary: MORE OF PROTESTERS OUTSIDE THE EMBASSY POLICE WATCHING PROTESTERS
  • Embargoed: 1st May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAF33A3DLA3WD82PWOJUK5SAYHH
  • Story Text: Ex-patriot Zimbabweans marched to their embassy in Pretoria calling for urgent intervention in the escalating crisis following unresolved elections in their country over two weeks ago.
    Hundreds of Zimbabweans living in South Africa protested outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday (April 16), calling for the urgent intervention in their country.
    The expatriots are initiating a programme of demonstrations and marches to demand decisive action after results in the presidential election were still undeclared over two weeks after the poll.
    The demonstrators are calling for United Nations intervention at a time when South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki is taking up chairmanship of the U.N. Security Council.
    "President Mbeki, President of South Africa, has become a liability to the Zimbabwean cause. Only over the weekend he announced that the was no crisis in Zimbabwe. There is a huge crisis in Zimbabwe in which a dictator, and illegitimate and illegal government continues to impose itself upon the people of Zimbabwe. We know how the people of Zimbabwe voted, they voted for change. Mbeki and Mugabe are denying them that change." said the Chairperson of the Global Diaspora Forum, Grace Kwinjeh.
    The protesters are warning against the possibility of renewed violence in the region and the problems posed by another major exodus of refugees from Zimbabwe.
    Thirty opposition supporters were arrested in Zimbabwe on Tuesday (April 15) for blocking roads, attacking vehicles and coercing people to participate in a strike called to demand the release of delayed election results, police said.
    The statement said 15 others were arrested for intimidating people who had gone in to work and for forcing shops to close.
    The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has declared victory in the March 29 polls, but no official results have been released.
    "The people of Zimbabwe know who's their president, who they voted for, they voted for change, they voted for democracy, they voted for peace but it is being denied. It is being suppressed by the government of Zimbabwe. So, our coming here is reclaim our freedom, to reclaim our democracy, to reclaim our Embassy, as Zimbabweans who voted for the government they want."
    added Sox Chikohwero of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Forum.
    Zimbabwe currently has an estimated 25 percent of its population in political or economic exile. In 2000, Zimbabwe's population was estimated at between 12.5 and 13 million. Today unofficial estimates have been revised to between seven and eight million.
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