Kitsepile Nyathi
15 August 2008
Harare — Hope has turned into despair for crisis weary Zimbabweans after the country’s main political rivals drifted apart at time when a crucial power sharing agreement touted at as the panacea to the deadly political and economic crisis was about to be signed.
As President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai blamed each other for the collapse of the talks, Zimbabweans on the streets said it was dawning on them that the problems facing their country could not be solved overnight.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean authorities confiscatedMr Tsvangirai’s passport today, preventing him from leaving the country to attend a regional summit in South Africa, an MDC official said, but the passports were later returned.
“The passport situation has just been resolved. They have their passports now. They will be leaving (for South Africa) on the 6 pm flight. There was no explanation,” MDC official and media adviser Andrew Chadwick told Reuters.
Mr Tsvangirai said he had been invited to attend the weekend Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit, to be hosted by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating power-sharing talks between Zimbabwe’s opposition and President Robert Mugabe.
Stalled this week
The talks stalled this week after President Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai failed to agree on top leadership posts, a sensitive issue for the long-time political rivals.
“We can’t travel without passports. There’s no point. In any case the plane has left and Tsvangirai has already gone back. He has no patience for this,” Movement for Democratic Change Secretary-General Tendai Biti told Reuters.
“This is a loud message to SADC. We have been trying to tell President Mbeki about things like this, and people wouldn’t believe us. But now here it is ... for all to see."
Meanwhile, in many Zimbabweans have lost hope.
Ms Abigail Dhliwayo (31), a stockbroker was one of the excited Harare residents who jostled for a copy of the Monday edition of the state controlled Herald newspaper with a headline proclaiming “Deal Sealed.”
“These people are not serious,” she exclaimed after going through the story hailing a purported deal between Zanu PF and a small faction of the MDC led by Professor Arthur Mutambara. “How can they talk about a deal that excludes a party that has the most number of seats in parliament and won the only presidential election recognised by the world?”
The purported agreement was later dismissed as false by South African President Thabo Mbeki who is the mediator in the talks, and the MDC faction amid signs that a conclusive agreement is still a long way off.
And today for the first since the three way talks began under a thick veil of secrecy last month, the state media, revealed the nature of the discussions and what allegedly led to their break down on Tuesday.
The Herald, which usually reflects the ruling party’s line of thinking said Mr Tsvangirai brought “fresh demands on the 11th hour that sought to repudiate all agreements that the parties had signed as the dialogue progressed.
“The parties were putting their signatures to agreements as and when they were reached, meaning that the final settlement is a compendium of a series of documents that had been assented to by the three principals,” the paper said.
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