A key test of Zimbabwe’s fragile power-sharing government comes next week as the lower house of Parliament sits for the first time in nearly nine months to craft the legislation necessary to make the agreement work.
But Parliament will start its work at a time of deepening distrust between Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), after a week in which both sides accused each other of deliberately seeking to sabotage the deal.
Zanu-PF
Arriving at a meeting with the opposition on Tuesday, Zanu-PF officials wanted to make one thing clear from the outset: it was here to explain, not discuss, why it would not ”give” the MDC the two key ministries of home affairs and finance.
This is according to an account from Tendai Biti, secretary general of the MDC.
According to the same source, Zanu-PF was still insisting that the deal was never in danger and that it was the MDC that was endangering it by ”negotiating in public”.
Hardliners in President Robert Mugabe’s party, opposed to the power-sharing deal, appear to be winning a battle to roll back the agreement. Apart from clinging to key Cabinet posts, Zanu-PF also now wants parts of the agreement to be renegotiated.
The three parties to the talks agreed on sharing ministries. But they had not discussed which parties would get which ministries, an oversight an MDC spokesperson said this week was a ”grave mistake”.
After several meetings of its politburo and central committee, Zanu-PF is now using loopholes in the deal to retain all power and nudge the opposition into the margins.
In the deal Mugabe had agreed to share some of the 10 provincial governorship posts with the MDC. But he had already appointed loyalists to the posts and, with the MDC failing to secure a written commitment, Zanu-PF negotiator Nicholas Goche said Mugabe was under no obligation to cede provincial posts to the MDC.
According to Goche, Zanu-PF also wants to remove a clause in the agreement that ruled out the holding of by-elections for a year, allowing a party to replace its ministers automatically should a vacancy arise. But anxious to reclaim a parliamentary majority following its defeat in March, Zanu-PF is already preparing for by-elections in five lower- and upper-house constituencies.
Even amid visible signs of deepening economic crisis, with bank queues stretching longer and government ministers publicly admitting that they expect a poor harvest, Mugabe also wants to retain control of economic policy.
Mugabe is unmoved by the MDC’s insistence that foreign economic aid, crucial to recovery, would be unlocked only if MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is given full power to influence economic policy.
Even if Mugabe concedes finance and home affairs, which his party claims are the two ministries that remain to be allocated, he will still be able to retain significant power under current law: although the police force falls under home affairs, it is the president who appoints the chief of police.
And even if the MDC does garner the finance ministry, Mugabe will still retain control of the powerful reserve bank, as he is entitled under law to appoint its governor.
The MDC
Tsvangirai once called Thabo Mbeki a dishonest broker and wrote to the Southern African Development Community to ask the organisation to replace him. But now his party sees the former South African president as the man to save the deal. ”The facilitator has to come back,” Biti said recently.
The failure of weekend talks over the sharing of Cabinet posts saw the MDC step up its calls for Mbeki to intervene to break the impasse. While Zanu-PF claims differences have been narrowed down to the allocation of only two Cabinet posts, the MDC says there is broader disagreement over the terms of the power-sharing deal.
The MDC hopes international intervention will refocus global attention on Zimbabwe. With the world’s attention absorbed by the global financial crisis and the United States election and South Africa focused on events in the ANC, the frenzy around Zimbabwe has died down, allowing Zanu-PF some breathing space.
Tsvangirai ceded the defence and intelligence departments to Mugabe, hoping this would persuade the Zanu-PF leader to yield on other posts.
According to Biti MDC negotiators told Zanu-PF it could not claim the economic ministries because of its record of mismanagement. ”They must recognise that the MDC has to be given this task,” he said. In turn Zanu-PF would retain control of the security ministries.