South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating Zimbabwean power-sharing talks, said on Wednesday that negotiations had adjourned to allow the main opposition leader time to consider a deal.
He spoke in response to confusion over reports that President Robert Mugabe and breakaway opposition leader Arthur Mutambara had agreed on a deal to form a unity government.
Mbeki said he was not aware that Mutambara, leader of a splinter faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had signed an accord with Mugabe.
After three days of talks, he said main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has asked for ”more time to reflect about this matter which the other two negotiators have agreed”.
”But they need a bit of more time to reflect, so they will do that,” he said at a news conference in the capital, Harare.
Details of the deal are not clear, but the key stumbling block in the talks has been how much power Mugabe is willing to cede to the opposition movement.
Mbeki said the Zimbabwean parties ”have said negotiations must continue”.
”I am quite certain that all the of the parties are determined to find a solution,” he said adding that the solution has to be ”within the context of power-sharing negotiations”.
Mbeki is expected in Angola before a regional summit that starts in South Africa at the weekend.
Any deal that would exclude Tsvangirai would likely prompt protests from the West — and some African governments — for allowing Mugabe (84) to cling to an increasingly autocratic 28-year reign that has driven his once-thriving nation to economic ruin.
Tsvangirai won the first round of presidential elections in March but boycotted the June 27 run-off to protest against widespread violence targeting opposition supporters.
Earlier, officials from the ruling party and the MDC said that Mugabe and Mutambara had reached an agreement. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Mbeki has insisted on confidentiality.
Mutambara himself would not comment late on Tuesday night, but he appeared confident as he left negotiations — in contrast to Tsvangirai, who looked bleak.
Tsvangirai’s faction has 100 seats in Parliament, and the ruling Zanu-PF 99. Mutambara’s faction holds 10. He agreed to form a parliamentary alliance with Tsvangirai after the March elections, but if he now switches allegiances, it will give the majority to Mugabe’s party. It is uncertain, however, whether all his lawmakers will follow him into the Zanu-PF fold.
Mugabe brushed off questions as he left the hotel, but he denied that the negotiations had failed. ”Talks will never collapse as long as we have tongues,” he said.
All three parties agreed to begin power-sharing talks on July 21 to end Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis.
Tsvangirai has said he could work with moderates from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, but not with Mugabe.
Zanu-PF and powerful police and army generals of the joint operational command insist Mugabe must remain president. His security and police chiefs reportedly were worried that he would make too many concessions and strip them of their privileges — and potentially their protection from prosecution.
One of the contentious issues was whether Zanu-PF would retain control over the police and army in any power-sharing formula.
Mugabe and Zanu-PF have ruled Zimbabwe since the country gained independence in 1980. But his land-reform policies have laid waste to the country’s once-thriving agricultural sector and he has resorted to repression to hold on to power.
Zimbabwe now has the world’s highest rate of inflation, the majority of the population is unemployed and basic goods and food are hard to find. — Sapa-AP