Negotiators fail to end Zimbabwe cabinet impasse
Yahoo News
By Fanuel Jongwe AFP - Friday, September 19 04:42 pm HARARE (AFP) -
Negotiators for Zimbabwe's political leaders failed Friday to agree on
key ministries, with the main opposition saying it will not be "mere
accessories" in another ZANU-PF government.
"The negotiators met but they could not come to an agreement," Nelson
Chamisa, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told
AFP, saying there was no ****ft of position on the part of the longtime
ruling party.
"They are insisting on having all the key positions and we are saying
let's have genuine inclusive power-sharing (...) We will not allow
ourselves to be mere accessories in another ZANU-PF government."
He said discussions between the negotiators would continue. "It's a
negotiation and we will continue to discuss issues until we carve out a
deal."
President Robert Mugabe, MDC leader and prime minister-designate Morgan
Tsvangirai, and deputy prime minister-elect Arthur Mutambara failed
Thursday to agree on the cabinet posts and referred the matter to their
negotiators.
The spokesman for Mutambara's breakaway MDC faction, Edwin Mushoriwa,
told AFP that a decision on the cabinet posts would now be on hold
until Mugabe returns from next week's United Nations General Assembly.
"It won't be possible to resolve the issue in the absence of one of the
principals, President Mugabe, who is leaving for the UN assembly in New
York," he said.
Although Mugabe's party has not yet officially announced that he will
be going to the UN, the veteran leader travels annually to the general
assembly, which on Monday will hold a debate on African development.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara signed last Monday a power-sharing
deal that set out a framework for a multi-party government in order to
break an electoral deadlock.
ZANU-PF was allotted 15 ****tfolios in the new cabinet, Tsvangirai's MDC
13 and Mutambara's faction three.
Political analysts said Friday that ZANU-PF's leaders were not used to
sharing power.
"This is also an indication that Mugabe's hardliners are trying to
throw spanners in this deal as they are afraid that they will lose out
in the deal. They have been used to getting almost anything for free,"
said Charles Mangongera, an independent analyst based in Harare.
But Mangongera believed this would not derail the deal, adding that the
50-50 power-sharing arrangement should reflect the agreement and not
allow the MDC to get "Mickey Mouse ministries".
Bornwell Chakaodza, a political commentator and columnist in the
privately-owned Financial Gazette newspaper, also told AFP that the
deadlock was tem****ary.
ZANU-PF still wanted to cling on to powerful ministries such as
defence, home affairs, finance and information.
"But they must know that they cannot have their cake and eat it. They
must be prepared to share. They must realise this is a matter of give
and take."
Mugabe told the ZANU-PF central committee on Wednesday that party
divisions during elections in March had cost him a winning majority in
the first round of the presidential election.
"One keeps asking if only we had not blundered in the harmonised
election we would not be facing this humiliation," he said.
But the veteran leader, in an address broadcast live on television,
went on to assure his party that it remained in "the driving seat" and
"will not tolerate any nonsense from our new partners."
The 84-year-old also called on ZANU-PF leaders to explain to
Zimbabweans that the new deal meant former opponents were now political
partners.
ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time to
Tsvangirai's MDC in March elections, while Mugabe failed to win
presidential elections outright.
However the veteran president kept his job in June after Tsvangirai
pulled out of a run-off poll, saying his sup****ters were in danger from
violent attacks blamed on ZANU-PF.
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