HARARE: A rare olive branch proffered to Zimbabwe’s opposition by President Robert Mugabe was designed to sow divisions and hoodwink mediators rather than a genuine move towards reconciliation, according to analysts.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is leading efforts to bring the government and Movement for Democratic Change together ahead of next year’s elections, on Tuesday seized on a speech by Mugabe as a sign of a “positive attitude evinced by the protagonists”. Mugabe’s declaration to senior opposition members on Monday that political differences should not “make us aliens” nor stop them breaking bread together, which was made at a ceremony in Harare, marked a sharp change in tone from a man who has usually portrayed the MDC as puppets of his Western critics.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa then told state television the opposition should “accept the olive branch” from Mugabe, saying that the only differences the government had with the MDC was over its “hobnobbing with the West”.

But University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure said Mugabe’s statement was designed to hoodwink Mbeki who was charged by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) with brokering talks to diffuse long-simmering tensions between the ruling ZANU-PF and the MDC.—AFP