South African mediators on Friday said progress has been made in talks between the rival parties of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
”There is progress on the dialogue that has been made between the parties,” Lindiwe Zulu, spokesperson for the mediators, said.
”While we are anxious that all issues are resolved, the good thing is that they are talking,” she added.
”As far as we are concerned and as far as President [Jacob] Zuma is concerned, the earlier the issues are resolved, the better for the welfare and social status for the people of Zimbabwe.”
The mediators including Zulu, who is the South African president’s international adviser, returned from Zimbabwe on Wednesday after holding a series of meetings with the negotiators from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change.
The delegation, which also includes former South African Cabinet ministers Charles Nqakula and Mac Maharaj, met last week with Mugabe at his State House offices.
A report will be presented to Zuma to brief him about the visit, Zulu said.
The unity government created in February has been plagued by a raft of disputes that led Tsvangirai to boycott Cabinet meetings for three weeks in October.
Last month, regional leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) ended the stand-off at a special summit in Mozambique, tasking Zuma with helping the parties resolve their differences.
SADC gave the parties a 30-day deadline to resolve the issues, but this has been missed. Negotiations will, however continue, said Zulu.
Among the issues contested by the rival parties are the appointment of the central bank governor and the attorney general, as well as the naming of provincial governors and the removal of a Western travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe and his inner circle.
Zuma earlier this month named a new team to take over the regional mediation role previously held by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the power-sharing deal signed last year that created the unity government.
Mugabe bemoans divisions within Zanu-PF
Meanwhile, Mugabe has bemoaned factionalism within his Zanu-PF, saying internal divisions cost the party its parliamentary majority, state media said on Friday.
”Instead of organising against the opposition, we are sweating for support, not for the party, but for oneself,” Mugabe told party members ahead of their congress on Friday, according to the state-run Herald newspaper.
”We should be able to admit that the election produced a result that left a huge dent on the party,” he said. ”We are responsible for the poor performance in the election last year.”
Mugabe and his Zanu-PF were for the first time forced into the minority in Parliament last year by Tsvangirai’s MDC.
Tsvangirai also defeated Mugabe in the first round of the presidential race, but pulled out of the run-off, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters as the nation descended into political unrest, which rights groups say was fuelled largely by Zanu-PF.
Zanu-PF has been has been riven by internal squabbles over who should eventually succeed the 85-year-old Mugabe, while ethnic divisions have also heightened.
Mugabe has already been endorsed as Zanu-PF’s candidate for the next elections slated for 2013, when he will be 89 years old. — Sapa-AFP