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Three African Presidents to Meet in Mozambique's Port City of Beira
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano is to meet with his Zimbabwean and Malawian counterparts Robert Mugabe and Bakili Maluzi in the central port city of Beira on Monday to discuss the worsening crisis in Zimbabwe.
This will be "a preliminary meeting" to prepare implementation of decisions taken with regard to Zimbabwe at the latest summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) held in the Malawian city of Blantyre, according to a press release from Chissano's office.
The summit expressed concern over the impact of the Zimbabwean economic collapse on the rest of the SADC region and pledged its willingness to enter into dialogue with the Zimbabwean government and "other cooperation partners" to resolve the situation.
A working group formed by South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana was set up, which will discuss the economic and political problems of Zimbabwe.
While in Beira, SADC Chairman Maluzi and Chissano, also chairman of the SADC body for political, defence and security cooperation, will talk with Mugabe about "the mechanisms through which the summit decisions will be implemented".
it was reported that Zimbabwe's dramatic shortage of foreign currency has severely restricted its ability to pay for crucial imports, such as the electricity purchased from the Cahora Bassa dam in Mozambique.
The decline in Zimbabwe's foreign trade has also cut Mozambique 's foreign currency earnings, since Zimbabwe is traditionally one of the main users of the Mozambican port and rail systems.
The Monday meeting will also deal with matters of bilateral and trilateral cooperation, notably the two main transport corridors through central Mozambique (the Beira Corridor that links Zimbabwe to the Indian Ocean), and the road from Zimbabwe to Malawi that runs through the middle of Mozambique's Tete province.
The three presidents are also expected to discuss the Sena railway, which runs from Malawi to Beira.
This line was comprehensively sabotaged by the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels during the war of destabilization, and no train has run along it for the past decade and a half. The Mozambican government is still trying to raise the money required to rebuild the railway.
The Sena line will provide Malawi with an additional outlet to the sea, and will make it feasible to resume the export of coal from the mines in the Tete district of Moatize. Rebuilding the line is also regarded as the key for the development of the entire Mozambican part of the Zambezi valley.
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