No date set yet for Zuma's visit to Zimbabwe

SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma will not be coming to Zimbabwe this week to resume his facilitation role between principals to the Global Political Agreement.

His office said no date has yet been set for his visit.

The recent Sadc summit in Luanda recommended that President Zuma, as facilitator, should head for Harare to assist parties to the GPA to narrow their differences and pave way for elections.

The media has over the past week been awash with reports that President Zuma was coming to Harare this week.

But his office yesterday said a date is still to be fixed on when he would come to Harare.

President Zuma's international relations adviser, Ms Lindiwe Zulu said the facilitator's schedule for this week would not allow him to fly to Harare. "The facilitator, President Zuma will be attending an African National Congress policy conference this week and that will make it impossible for him to come to Zimbabwe," said Ms Zulu.

"There is no date set as yet for his coming at the moment. President Zuma will come when he is able to."

President Zuma's office, she said, never issued a statement saying the South African leader would be coming to Harare as reported by some media houses. "That obviously did not come from our office. Many people have been calling me asking about the issue," she said.

Asked when President Zumba's backroom team would be back, Ms Zulu said that depended on progress made by negotiators to the GPA.

"The facilitation team was in Harare a week and half ago and we met the negotiating team. Our return now depends on the progress by negotiators."

The facilitation backroom team met negotiators as well as the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee.

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