Former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has landed in Zimbabwe on a special peace mission.
Mutunga arrived in the country on Sunday to broker a peace agreement between the ruling party Zanu PF and the opposition MDC.
Mutunga, who has been secretly going for talks in the country since August, met senior MDC officials, including its president Nelson Chamisa.
“Mutunga is in Harare to meet Zanu PF and MDC leaders for talks to resolve the current political and economic situation. This has been necessitated by events which followed the otherwise peaceful, yet not transparent and credible elections in July.
“He is coming here at the behest of the international community which wants to see the situation tackled and fixed before things get too complicated,” a top African diplomat stated.
The talks started after Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zanu PF was declared as the presidential winner in the July elections.
Mutunga’s peace process is modelled along the lines of the late United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, who also tried in vain to help resolve the situation in Zimbabwe.
His mandate includes looking at a broad framework, before identifying salient issues on both sides, which can be narrowed down to an agenda for talks.
“Mutunga is engaging to look at the political and economic situation, sources of the political wrangling, the current situation going back to the coup, transition, elections, electoral dispute, the subsequent economic turmoil and the state of the nation to see how dialogue can be structured and facilitated.
“He will also specifically look at what issues both parties want addressed before coming up with an agenda for discussion,” an MDC official stated.
