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counterpart Mr Jacob Zuma ahead of the Extraordinary Sadc Summit slated for Sandton tomorrow.
This comes as parties to the Global Political Agreement are determined to reach a common position ahead of the summit.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was last night making frantic efforts to get in touch with President Mugabe who was out of the capital while negotiators to the GPA are scheduled to convene a meeting with the SA facilitation team today as part of efforts to have a common position.

Presidential spokesperson Mr George Charamba yester-day confirmed the meeting between the two leaders.
“The President is slated to meet President Zuma tomo-rrow afternoon. He has to depart early to accommodate that fixture. The two will clear the ground on the political situation in Zimbabwe ahead of the summit,” said Mr Charamba.

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He also confirmed that PM Tsvangirai had made contact with officials in the President’s Office emphasising the importance of going to South Africa with one position.
“Unfortunately, the President could not meet the PM because he was attending another function at Kutama. The President has the same mind that Zimbabweans should go to South Africa with one mind,” he said.
Commenting on the invitation of both Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara and Professor Welshman Ncube who are fighting for control of the other MDC formation, Mr Charamba said Sadc was interested on the bigger national picture and not intra-party differences.

“For Sadc, the issue is not about intra-party conflict. The concern is capturing and making all assessments on the national picture which is why Sadc has not preferred either factions but have invited both,” he said.
An observer noted last night that the desire by the PM to meet the President coupled with today’s meeting of negotiators and facilitators showed that parties to the GPA were keen to find a common trajectory in addressing challenges facing the country.

“The whole media hype about the meeting is nothing, but just mere grandstanding,” said one political analyst.
It is understood that four documents on Zimbabwe will be presented to the summit.
The first one is the joint review of the GPA done by Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations outlining the progress and achievement made in implementing the GPA.

The second document will be the Draft Election Roadmap crafted by the negotiators with the help of the facilitators.
Another document to be tabled is the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee report on instances and areas of conflict for a period under review.

The Jomic report would cut through the contending clai-ms from political parties over responsibility for violence, laying bare the facts of issues of violence and who is to blame on a particular instant.
The report, signed by all signatories to the GPA, would also shed light on the scale of violence, which to an extent has been exaggerated.

The fourth document is a report by facilitators and negotiators from a workshop held in Cape Town containing minutes shaping the way forward.
Diplomatic sources say South Africa is determined to achieve progress on Zimbabwe ahead of August when it assumes the chairmanship of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.

“They have an interest in registering progress before August when Pretoria will be chairing the Troika. It would be very odd for it to chair the Troika as well as playing its role as facilitator. Who will it report to because SA would then be putting on two hats,” said one diplomat.

Another diplomat noted that South Africa had become very uncomfortable with a sudden interest the United States and Britain have had on Zimbabwe since the Livingstone Sadc summit.
“The West has sought to hijack the Livingstone Summit’s outcome thereby inadvertently making President Zuma a Trojan horse for imperialistic agendas. One with liberation war credentials like President Zuma would not want to be an enabler of imperialistic interests,” he said.

Yesterday, online media reports said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled to fly into Zambia today for talks with President Rupiah Banda on the eve the Sadc Summit.
President Banda is the current chair of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.

According to New Zimbabwe.com, US officials said Mrs Clinton would be attending a forum on the African Growth and Opportunity Act which was passed to improve trade wi-th Africa. Representatives of 37 countries are expected to attend.

She is due to meet with President Banda hours before he flies to South Africa for the Sadc summit.
Zanu-PF Politburo member Professor Jonathan Moyo, who is in South Africa leading a mission to set the record straight on the situation in Zimbabwe, said Mrs Clinton’s visit to the region on the eve of the Sadc summit had one specific reason.

“She wants to peep into Zimbabwe, she thinks there is a North African window,” Prof Moyo said in reference to the US-backed Libyan and Egyptian anti-government uprisi- ngs.