/ 21 October 2008

Mugabe accuses Tsvangirai of stalling on deal

President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF on Tuesday accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of stalling on a power-sharing deal after he refused to attend an emergency summit in Swaziland aimed at rescuing the pact.

Monday’s meeting, called by the 15-nation Southern African Development Community to try end an impasse in talks on forming a joint Cabinet, was postponed until October 27 after Tsvangirai refused to go until he is issued a new passport.

”Tsvangirai’s failure to come to Swaziland seems to us to reflect his own reluctance or hesitancy to finalise and conclude discussions on the formation of an inclusive government,” Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu-PF chief negotiator, told the Herald.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai have clashed over control of key ministries and weeks of face-to-face talks have failed to break the deadlock, raising fears a deal signed over a month ago could collapse and plunge Zimbabwe’s economy deeper into crisis.

Tsvangirai, who has not been issued with a new passport since filling up his old one months ago, was given a temporary emergency document for the Swaziland trip but refused to use it.

The SADC meeting will now take place in Harare. In an editorial, the paper urged Mugabe to form a Cabinet without Tsvangirai, adding that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader should renounce Western sanctions before being issued a new passport.

The MDC said in a statement on Tuesday that Tsvangirai would address ”report back” rallies in Zimbabwe over the weekend to update supporters on developments since the deal was signed.

Tsvangirai has accused Zanu-PF, which lost a parliamentary election in March, of trying to seize the most important ministries and relegate the MDC to the role of junior partner in a new government.

The Cabinet talks are seen as critical to solving Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. Inflation has hit 231-million percent in a country suffering acute shortages of food, fuel and currency.

Millions of Zimbabweans have fled the country in search of food and work in neighbouring nations, especially South Africa.

Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a presidential election on March 29 but with too few votes to avoid a June run-off, which was won by Mugabe unopposed after Tsvangirai pulled out, saying his supporters had been subjected to violence and intimidation.

Eleven dead from Cholera
Meanwhile, 11 more people have died in a new outbreak of cholera in northern Zimbabwe.

The Herald quoted the local civil protection unit in the run-down former agricultural town of Chinhoyi as saying that the deaths had occurred in the last three weeks, while 500 had been treated for the disease.

Earlier this month, health officials confirmed that 16 people had died in the dormitory town of Chitungwiza on Harare’s outskirts.

Like nearly all urban areas in the country, the two centres are stricken by prolonged breakdowns in water supplies, which result in sewage spewing raw effluent into crowded townships, while refuse collection has mostly ground to a halt.

”The widespread outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera, across Zimbabwe, resulting from the catastrophic breakdown of urban water supply and sanitation services will dramatically worsen with the rainy season which begins in less than a month,” warned Gregory Powell, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Child Protection Society.

”A toxic combination of under-nutrition and diarrhoea is likely to result in the deaths of thousands of children, and many more into acute, severe malnutrition,” said Powell.

Felix Mubvaruri, a spokesperson for the state-controlled Zimbabwe National Water Authority office in Chinhoyi, said the organisation was severely short of equipment, including rods for clearing blocked sewers. He blamed the constant power cuts afflicting all urban areas.

”If we could have uninterrupted electricity, we would be able to pump water to all residents.” – Sapa-DPA, Reuters