Talks on Zimbabwe’s political crisis broke up on Tuesday in South Africa as negotiators flew home to resolve a deadlock over power-sharing between President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan
Tsvangirai.
But South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating an end to the crisis, insisted discussions were still on track despite talk of a deadlock by Tsvangirai’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
”They have not concluded, they will be adjourning shortly for a few days because they want to go back to Harare and consult with their principals about the work that is being done and then come back by the end of the week to resume the negotiations,” Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria.
Earlier, the chief spokesperson for Tsvangirai’s MDC said the talks had reached a logjam.
George Sibotshiwe said: ”We cannot discuss the main issues, we can only say that they are in a deadlock … If the sticking points are resolved then the talks will resume.”
Mbeki insisted at a news conference however that the talks were ”going very well”.
”In the memorandum of understanding they said they will try to conclude negotiations within two weeks,” said Mbeki.
”They are indeed very determined to keep to that commitment and so they are continuing to talk among themselves and indeed to reach agreements about various matters that are on their agenda.”
Tsvangirai flew to Johannesburg on Monday amid claims by his party that the talks had run into trouble.
Tsvangirai and 84-year-old Mugabe signed an accord on July 21 to begin talks on sharing power after a months-long election dispute.
While Tsvangirai believes his victory in the first round of a presidential election in March should give him the right to the lion’s share of power, MDC sources say Mugabe’s negotiators are so far only offering him the chance to become one of several vice-presidents.
”They have offered Morgan the post of third vice-president and nothing else, which is obviously a position totally unacceptable to the MDC,” said one source.
Britain’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations warned on Tuesday that the United Nations Security Council will have to take up the Zimbabwe crisis
again if ongoing South African-mediated talks fail to resolve it.
”We wish these [South African] efforts well,” Karen Pierce told reporters. ”But it is clear that if we don’t make progress soon or don’t see progress soon in Zimbabwe, the Council will need to come back to this issue.”
Earlier this month, Russia and China vetoed a Western drive to slap Security Council sanctions on Mugabe over his tainted re-election victory.
Tsvangirai formed the MDC at the end of 1999. The former trade union leader has twice been charged with treason and needed hospital treatment for head injuries last year as he was assaulted by members of
the security forces ahead of an anti-government rally.
The bitterness between Tsvangirai and Mugabe hit new heights during the course of the election run-off when Tsvangirai was detained on five separate occasions while campaigning and his number two, Tendai Biti, was arrested for treason.
The MDC leader, who had not gained enough votes to win outright in the first poll in March, subsequently pulled out of the contest after dozens of his party’s supporters were killed in attacks that he blamed on pro-Mugabe thugs.
Ignoring widespread calls to shelve the ballot, Mugabe went ahead and staged the poll, winning a predictable landslide victory.
Once seen as a post-colonial success story, the former British colony’s economy has been in meltdown since Mugabe began a land reform
programme at the turn of the decade and annual inflation now stands at roughly 2,2-million percent.
Unemployment is running at around 80% and even basics such as bread and cooking oil are scarce in the region’s former breadbasket. – AFP
