Statement by the President of the Movement for Democratic Change on the
state of the dialogue
Suffering of Zimbabweans
Today is exactly 24 days after the signing of the global political
agreement between ourselves and ZANU PF.
On the day we signed the agreement the people of Zimbabwe breathed a
sigh of relief and their hopes for a final resolution of this crisis
were raised. Unfortunately no progress has been made since then, to
bring the Zimbabwean people to the beginning of the path of recovery.
Instead the economic crisis has worsened with people spending all their
days in endless cash queues. We now live in an environment characterised
by hunger and starvation and we are days way from seeing people dropping
dead on the streets. I believe suffering knows no political affiliation
and both ZANU PF and MDC sup****ters are suffering under this economic
crisis.The agricultural season is upon us yet the nation is not prepared
to take full advantage of what promises to be a good season.
We have just witnessed the conclusion of a disastrous education year in
the history of our country, with the national examination board crippled
by the economic crisis to the extent of failing to implement the Grade 7
examination sitting for this year. The countries universities are
failing to open for the next semester due to the economic crisis.
I stated at my last press conference that given a nation in such a state
it was necessary to put a government in place in order for us to begin
the task of ensuring that the problems facing our country are dealt
with. I believe that as leaders we have a duty of ensuring that we
reward Zimbabweans for their patience and commitment to peace by
ensuring we succeed in working together. We have actively engaged our
colleagues in ZANU PF with a view to ensuring that we have agreement on
the outstanding issues. May l take this op****tunity to brief the nation
on the state of the dialogue.
State of the dialogue
We have been engaging with our colleagues in ZANU PF at both the
negotiators and principals level.
In particular we have been deliberating on the allocation of ministries.
There has been no progress made on this entire section as ministries can
only be negotiated comprehensively and not individually. It is not true
to say that we are left with two ministries to negotiate as any
agreement reached on those two particular ministries would have an
effect on the allocation of the rest of the ministries.In this regard we
have declared a deadlock and therefore the process can not move forward
except in the presence of the facilitator.
I would like to emphasise that in looking at the allocation of
ministries we have been informed by our desire as MDC ,of ensuring that
we have a fair power sharing arrangement that allows us to deal with the
current economic crisis while at the same time ensuring that we
guarantee the basic freedoms for our people as well as democratize our
society.
We have not yet deliberated on the outstanding issue of the allocation
of governors. This issue remains outstanding considering that as
negotiating parties we agreed that the allocation of governors must be
in the spirit of the result of the election on the 29th of March 2008.
There is still an outstanding issue of omissions made in the signed
agreement at the signing ceremony on the 15th of September, that had
been agreed and initialled by all parties when we signed the original
agreement on the 11th of September 2008. We are assured that the
facilitator will sort out this problem and provide an updated do***ent
to the general public.
Lack of paradigm
We are concerned by the lack of paradigm ****ft on the part of our
colleagues in ZANU PF and have watched with dismay
their continued hate language in the state media which is destroying the
hope of our people as well as their confidence in this power sharing
arrangement.
the continued trumped up charges brought against our Secretary General,
members of parliament and various members of our party structures across
the country.
the continued discrimination on the basis of political affiliation
mainly taking place in the rural areas.
the continued interference with, and threatening of, our councils, by
the illegal minister of local government.
the lack of sincerity and commitment to working together demonstrated by
what should be a simple administrative issue like issuing my pass****t,
which has been turned into a political weapon by our colleagues in ZANU
PF.
Throughout this negotiation effort up to the signing of the global
political agreement we have compromised on many ocassions with a view to
ensuring that the political crisis in our country is resolved in the
interest of our nation.We are committed to change and therefore do not
have challenges accepting change in its many forms. ZANU PF is not
sensitive to the plight of the people and therefore has not gone through
a paradigm ****ft of accepting the change created by signing the global
political agreement.
SADC and AU are the guarantors
The global political agreement we have is guaranteed by SADC and the
African Union and therefore in the event of a dispute or deadlock as we
have now, the matter should be taken to SADC and AU in order for them to
assist us. We have communicated this position to the African Union and
to SADC as well as to the facilitator and have confidence that our
African brothers will do everytihng in their power to ensure that this
issue is resolved with speed.
We as Zimbabweans owe it to our African counterparts to ensure that we
spare no effort in resolving the outstanding issues. We look forward ot
working with SADC, AU, and the facilitator in order to find a solution.
I thank you
Morgan Tsvangirai
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