Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai came under mounting pressure on Friday to end their feud over forming a unity government, ahead of a regional summit this weekend.
Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meet on Sunday for an emergency summit in Johannesburg in a last-ditch bid to save a power-sharing deal signed on September 15.
The agreement had been hailed as a step toward ending months of political turmoil and halting Zimbabwe’s descent into economic chaos, with a stunning inflation rate last estimated at 231-million percent.
But the deal now hangs on whether Mugabe and Tsvangirai can agree on who will control the most powerful Cabinet posts, particularly home affairs with its oversight of the police.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma told reporters that the summit must prod the rivals into a compromise.
”SADC must make Zimbabweans reach an agreement,” Zuma said in Cape Town. ”A solution must be found to enable the people of Zimbabwe and the region to close this sad chapter.”
Zimbabwe’s teachers also launched a desperate appeal for the political rivals to find a solution, saying a solution was needed to save the country’s schools from total collapse.
”Education service delivery has been seriously compromised and is on the brink of collapse,” the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) said in a statement.
The teachers urged Zimbabwe’s leaders to ”expedite the formation of an all-inclusive government so as to speedily salvage the education system”.
Schoolchildren have missed their lessons for the better part of the year as teachers went on strike over low pay and poor work conditions.
The few teachers going to work often spend most of their time selling sweets and stationery while others resort to so-called ”remote control” teaching — leaving a pupil to take charge of the class while they attend to personal business.
‘Extreme concern’
The vast majority of Zimbabweans confront daily struggles to survive, with nearly half the population needing emergency food aid and 80%of the population unemployed.
Hopes had risen for an end to the crisis in September, when former South African president Thabo Mbeki brokered the power-sharing deal, which calls for Mugabe remaining as president while Tsvangirai becomes prime minister.
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a first-round presidential vote in March, but pulled out of a June run-off, accusing the regime of orchestrating deadly political violence against his supporters that Amnesty International estimates left 180 dead.
Regional powerhouse South Africa has taken an unusually tough stance on Zimbabwe ahead of the summit, warning that the stalemate was becoming a threat to regional stability.
”We believe South Africa and the region cannot be held to ransom by parties who are failing to reach agreement on the allocation of Cabinet posts,” government spokesperson Themba Maseko told reporters on Thursday.
”This is becoming a matter of extreme concern for us and we will be taking quite a hard stance to make sure that agreement is reached,” he said.
Mbeki remains SADC’s designated mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis, but Zuma indicated that the region could find someone new to facilitate the talks if the deadlock continues.
”As we see the matter has not been resolved, and therefore such questions may arise” about naming a new mediator, he said.
”I think the matter, if there was dissatisfaction, should be considered by SADC,” he added. — AFP
