/ 29 August 2008

SA says Zimbabwe talks to resume

Zimbabwean talks would resume on Friday despite comment from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party that there was no need for further negotiations.

South Africa said Zimbabwean power-sharing talks would resume on Friday despite comment from President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party that there was no need for further negotiations.

Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have failed to reach agreement in over one month of post-election power-sharing negotiations aimed at ending a political crisis that has worsened Zimbabwe’s devastating economic decline.

South Africa’s Foreign Ministry said Zimbabwe’s two opposition factions were in South Africa for talks and they would resume on Friday.

But it was unclear whether Zanu-PF would take part in the negotiations, which have been mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki.

South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters he hoped the talks can lead to the finalisation of ”all outstanding matters”.

Zimbabwe’s state-owned Herald newspaper earlier quoted Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who heads Zanu-PF’s negotiating team, as saying: ”There was no need for more talks since there was a deal already on the table that was waiting to be signed.”

But Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change said it would not sign the deal in its current form, although it remained committed to talks.

MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said it was ”ridiculous” for Zanu-PF to insist on Tsvangirai’s signature without addressing ”deficiencies” in the proposed agreement in terms of executive powers.

Mugabe, who reopened Parliament this week in defiance of opposition objections, has said he would soon form a new government without the opposition MDC. He said it was not willing to join the new administration.

Mugabe was re-elected unopposed in a June vote boycotted by Tsvangirai because of violence and condemned around the world.

Regional heads of state in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which mandated Mbeki to mediate in the Zimbabwe talks, have so far failed to push the parties into a deal.

Despite several setbacks, political analysts say that international and regional pressure will eventually force Zanu-PF and the MDC to reach a deal.

The breakaway, smaller MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara is also part of the negotiations.

It has taken a softer line than Tsvangirai’s camp and analysts say it has moved closer to Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980.

The economic price of the deadlock is rising by the day.

Severe food, fuel and foreign currency shortages are worsening. The hardships, which also include the world’s highest annual inflation rate of over 11-million percent, has already driven millions of Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries. – Reuters