By Stanley Gama
President Jacob Zuma is preparing to intervene urgently in Zimbabwe as his advisers express impatience with Zimbabwean leaders for failing to meet to resolve their differences.
Regional leaders at summit in Maputo on November 5 gave the Zimbabweans 15 to 30 days to sort out their differences.
But 17 days later, the Zimbabwean leaders have not yet met.
Zuma's international relations adviser, Lindiwe Zulu, said yesterday the delay was worrying and this had forced the Presidency to speed up its facilitation role.
"We have been engaging with the people of Zimbabwe since the Maputo summit and we cannot afford to miss the deadline set by SADC," she said.
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"The negotiators have to be serious with the deadline they were given and we hope to push them to meet.
"The facilitator (Zuma) wants the process speeded up because this issue has been dragging on for a long time.
"People from this side have been travelling to Zimbabwe to meet the political leaders and we have no option except to push for an agreement."
Zuma was expected to travel to Harare on December 6 to assess the negotiations.
But reports from Pretoria suggest that he might go earlier if the political leaders in Zimbabwe continue to drag their feet on negotiations. Regional leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) held a summit in Maputo on November 5 to discuss the continuing failure of the Zimbabwean leaders to resolve their differences.
This was after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), partially pulled out of the unity government to protest against President Robert Mugabe's failure to implement agreements.
These included his refusal to appoint MDC officials to senior government posts and Mugabe's demand that the MDC do more to persuade Western countries to lift sanctions against senior Zanu-PF figures.
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