IEC chief attends Zim election workshop

Adv Tlakula will be sharing her experiences on the management of elections in South Africa, lessons learnt and best practices. She will also speak on elections, freedom of expression and access to information.

The workshop is part of the ongoing dialogue between the African Commission, the government of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean Civil Society organisations regarding various human rights issues in that country.

The workshop is organised by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ).

MAZ was formed in 2004 and is a partnership of four media organisations, namely, the Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe, Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Editors' Forum and the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists.

Participants will comprise editors of all media houses, media civic organisations, regulatory authorities and the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communication.

Adv Tlakula is attending in her capacity as the Commissioner and Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa of the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights, as well as the IEC Chief Electoral Officer.

On Thursday last week, President Thabo Mbeki met representatives of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as part of facilitation efforts to find solutions to the current situation in Zimbabwe.

Mbeki had a meeting with President Robert Mugabe and held talks with the leaders of the two MDC factions, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, at the South African ambassador's residence.

President Mbeki told journalists after the meeting that he had given a report to Mugabe and the opposition leaders on how far the negotiators had gone with the talks.

President Mbeki was mandated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government extra-ordinary summit in Tanzania, in March 2007 to facilitate talks between the two parties ahead of Zimbabwe's elections.

Last year, at the 27th SADC Summit in Lusaka, the Southern African heads of state mandated their countries' finance ministers to draft an economic recovery plan for Zimbabwe, in tandem with Zimbabwe's government.

Executive Secretary of the SADC Secretariat, Tomaz Salomao had been compiling a report for some months on Zimbabwe's ailing economy, and presented this document, including a proposed turnaround plan, to the summit.

Article published courtesy of BuaNews