Yar'Adua goes into extra time

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THE INSIDE VIEW

South African President Jacob Zuma has been accused of kowtowing to President Robert Mugabe in his attempts on 4 March to persuade British Premier Gordon Brown to lobby for the lifting of European Union sanctions on Zimbabwe. In fact, Zuma is searching for leverage with Mugabe, suggesting that sanctions could be quickly reimposed if pledges are not kept. Zuma’s team of advisors on Zimbabwe – foreign policy specialist Lindiwe Zulu, ANC veteran Mac Maharaj and former Home Affairs Minister Charles Nqaqula – have made some headway in negotiations on political and security issues despite reports of hardline ZANU-PF elements stepping up attacks. Many sanctions on Zimbabwe are, though, under review: its voting rights at the IMF have been restored. The IMF and the World Bank are working on a plan to tackle its arrears and speed up disbursement for the short term recovery programme – despite the United States’ and Britain’s veto on loans. That too may change after some diplomatic clodhopping. Last year, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that it was up to the MDC to decide when sanctions were lifted. Since then, Premier Morgan Tsvangirai has written to EU leaders calling for a general review of sanctions and Finance Minister Tendai Biti has asked the EU to lift sanctions on eight specific companies; it quickly complied. However, the last set of sanctions – the targeting of ZANU-PF officials and their business friends – is likely to stand for many months yet.