The South African government has slammed Kenya after South African negotiator Cyril Ramaphosa was forced to quit the ongoing peace talks in Kenya. Deputy Foreign Minister, Aziz Pahad, has angrily refuted claims by the government-side negotiators that Ramaphosa, a lawyer, politician and businessman, was biased.
The South African government has slammed Kenya after South African negotiator Cyril Ramaphosa was forced to quit the ongoing peace talks in Kenya. Deputy Foreign Minister, Aziz Pahad, has angrily refuted claims by the government-side negotiators that Ramaphosa, a lawyer, politician and businessman, was biased.
Pahad said Rampahosa, a shrewd negotiator and trade unionist, had “a proven track record as a trouble shooter and could have played a valuable role in bringing to an end the crisis” that has gripped Kenya since the result of the 27 December election was made public.
Rampahosa was invited to Kenya by the chief negotiator, former UN secretary Kofi Annan to co-chair the mediation effort in this country of 35 million. He was to help the Annan-led negotiations aimed at ending the post-election viol ence, precipitated by the stalemate, and which has claimed over 800 lives and 25 5,000 people homeless.
But on reaching Nairobi, Ramaphosa, a former African National Council secretary-general, detected hostility on the government-side negotiators – who claimed that he was Odinga’s business associate. Odinga refuted the claims, saying he had no business links with Ramaphosa. They claimed that the South African could not exercise impartiality in the talks .
Disappointed by the allegations, Ramaphosa pulled out of the talks and returned home.
Annan is heading the talks that brings together President Kibaki’s ruling Party of National Unity (PNU) and the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Raila Odinga. He is spearheading the African Union (AU) trouble shooting initiative, together with two prominent Africans – Graca Marcel, wife of ex-South African President, N elson Mandela, and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.
The bone of contention is the disputed presidential election results, in which the disgraced Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) declared incumbent President Mwai Kibaki winner to the chagrin of Odinga who rejected the outcome, saying the polls were rigged.
In a stinging attack on the Kenyan government, Pahad said: “the role played by Ramaphosa during the South African democratic process as well as his contribution to the Irish peace process has indicated his ability to seek solutions in the interest of peace and democracy and without taking sides.”
He said the South African government strongly rejected the erroneous argument by that Rampaphosa could not be an honest broker.
The now subsiding post-election violence, the worst in the country’s history, has seen the international community step in and urge Kibaki and Raila to resolve t he dispute, stop the destruction of property, loss of human lives and move the c o untry forward.
In Nairobi, the Annan team is pushing for the setting up of a power-sharing gove rnment in which Odinga could be made prime minister.
He has also challenged the Kenyan leaders to address key issues that precipitated the violence – unequal distribution of resources and review of the ‘outdated’ constitution.
