/ 17 October 2008

Zim rivals back at the negotiating table

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai were set on Friday to resume power-sharing talks for a fourth day to end a spat on key Cabinet posts holding up a new unity government.

After nearly eight hours of talks mediated by former South African leader Thabo Mbeki on Thursday, negotiations remained stalled over how to divide the most important ministries.

Mugabe told reporters while leaving the negotiations that he hoped for a breakthrough on Friday.

”I would not want to call the delay dilly-dallying, but we have made a lot of compromises. Everyone has made some compromises and we hope that this will be all concluded tomorrow [Friday],” state media on Friday quoted him as saying.

The parties had ”some good discussions”, the 84-year-old said in the state mouthpiece Herald newspaper.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said there had been some advances ”but not enough to seal the deal”.

Speaking to Agence France-Presse on Friday, Chamisa said the MDC would not shift on demands for an equitable share of ministries. Mugabe awarded key Cabinet posts to his ruling Zanu-PF last weekend in defiance of a power-sharing deal inked last month.

”We are very clear we are not going to compromise,” he said. ”There is no going back on fundamental issues, we will not play second fiddle to Zanu-PF.”

A unity government has failed to materialise since a landmark power-sharing agreement was brokered by Mbeki in September following marathon talks with Zimbabwe’s three main political rivals.

This week Mbeki flew to Harare in a bid to save the deal, which was meant to rescue Zimbabwe from economic and political chaos.

Under the power-sharing deal, the 84-year-old Mugabe would remain president while MDC leader Tsvangirai would take the new post of prime minister.

Tsvangirai threatened to pull out of the agreement after Mugabe last weekend announced he would award key ministries to his own party, giving him a firm grip on the military, police and other security agencies.

A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity on Thursday, said that Tsvangirai’s MDC had insisted on control of the Home Affairs Ministry, which oversees the police, widely accused of human rights abuses.

”The proposal was that the MDC gets the Ministry of Finance, and the Home Affairs Ministry would be rotated [between the parties] over a period of time or years, but this was not acceptable to the MDC,” the official said.

Tsvangirai won first-round presidential vote in March, but pulled out of a June run-off, saying the violence had left more than 100 of his supporters dead.

Mugabe’s victory in the uncontested run-off drew international condemnation, and Western nations have heaped pressure on his regime to make good on the power-sharing deal.

The European Union has threatened to impose new sanctions on the regime if the deal falls apart, while the United States accused him of violating the agreement.

With the government in limbo, hopes have dimmed for salvaging Zimbabwe’s economy, as the country grapples with the world’s highest inflation rate at 231-million percent. — Sapa-AFP