Cabinet talks shelved for rest of week, awaiting intervention from SADC
http://www.hararetribune.com
Monday, 06 October 2008 12:05
The MDC said no new talks on a unity government would be held Monday or
this week and called for regional mediation to resolve a dispute on how
to divide key ministries.
"As far as we are concerned, there are no talks lined up today," Nelson
Chamisa, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said.
He denied a re****t in the state-run Herald newspaper, which said
President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the MDC would meet
Monday to resolve their differences over control of the finance and
home affairs ministries.
"Nothing has been concluded. ZANU-PF and Mugabe are trying to mislead
the world and the nation," Chamisa said.
"It is now time SADC and the AU come and assist in this matter," he
added.
The MDC had called last week for the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) or the African Union to help break the impasse, but
Mugabe's party insisted that no outside mediation was needed.
But new talks Saturday among Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MDC splinter group
leader Arthur Mutambara failed to resolve their differences.
Chamisa said the MDC had proposed leaving Mugabe control of the defence
ministry, if the opposition were given home affairs.
"It's a deadlock," he said. "The country is at a standstill and people
are dying of hunger and yet ZANU-PF is not moving an inch to take this
country forward."
The two parties have been dealocked over the sharing of the cabinet
talks for almost a month now. While they are dealocked, the economic
crisis continues, with the inflation now estimated at over 312 billion
percent.
Mugabe, ZANU-PF have been blamed for the causing the economic crisis
after they destroyed the agriculture sector.
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