Johannesburg — ZIMBABWE's power-sharing deal is teetering on the brink of collapse after Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) negotiators walked out of a critical meeting with Zanu (PF) yesterday as a dispute over ministerial posts intensified.
Unless the mediator, former president Thabo Mbeki, intervenes to break the deadlock, talks over the allocation of 31 government ministries might soon be abandoned.
Three meetings involving President Robert Mugabe and main MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai have failed to resolve the issue.
The Southern African Development Community and the South African government have agreed that Mbeki can continue as mediator.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai met on Saturday for the third time, but deadlocked over the distribution of ministries, the allocation of which would have paved the way for the formation of a new government.
Under last month's power-sharing agreement, Mugabe is entitled to 15 ministries, Tsvangirai 13, and the leader of the smaller MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, three.
Mugabe is allowed eight deputy ministers, Tsvangirai six and Mutambara two. However, there is no agreement on which portfolios go to which party.
There is also a dispute over the sharing of the 10 posts of provincial governors now held by Zanu (PF).
Mugabe's party is also demanding revision of the agreement signed on September 15 to remove a clause which says if any of the parties lose an MP, they would not contest by-elections against each other.
MDC negotiators said they were "poles apart" from their Zanu (PF) counterparts and did want to "waste time talking".
MDC negotiator Tendai Biti confirmed the meeting broke down because "we were worlds apart". "Zanu (PF) came into the meeting with an arrogant and contemptuous attitude."
Biti said the allocation of all 31 ministries had not yet been resolved .
He said that in view of the "interminable deadlock", Mbeki needed to help resolve the issue.
Zanu (PF) negotiator Patrick Chinamasa said the party did not see the need for Mbeki to intervene yet.
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Students, housewives and civil society groups must now get onboard the bandwagon of the movement for quality change and force lunatic Mugabe and cronies out of power!
The suffering people will not be able to wait any longer given the planting season may just go by without any government incentive to catch up with lost time. famine on a large scale is just by everybody's doorstep.
The hard headed lunatic Mugabe is behaving just as irresponsibly like dictators such as Mugabe, Bokassa, Taylor, Déby and co.
The MDCs badly need the people into the streets en masse to defy Mugabe's continuing act of starving the people. He has really no place in Zimbabwe for all the sufferings he is inflicting on Zim citizens.
When will he be booted out of office and the country? When? Zims must feel emboldened to regain their dignity once for all and teach the hooligans in power what people's power can do and achieve!
MDCs must stop the circus show of continuing talks with buffoons! What's the need to talk to a lunatic who has turned down the passport application of the designated PM?
Even hell will refuse to provide an abode to a vile monster, just like Zaire that refused to provide a resting place to the cruel Mobutu!
Prem is right about Mugabe. Mugabe is an intelligent and blood thirsty dictator. But as a Zimbabwean myself, I think the call for people to go on the streets is not the best option to remove Mugabe from power simply because it can not work; it will not work; it did not work in the past when Tsvangirai himself called on the masses to revolt. Perhaps Prem is not aware that Tsvangirai called on Zimbabweans to go on the streets of Harare to remove Mugabe in June 2003. The majority of Harareans decided to stay at home.The few hundreds that marched on the streets were brutally assaulted by armed soldiers and police.Tsvangirai was arrested for treason and was only absolved by the courts. If Prem has read the history of Tsvangirai, he will notice that at first (1997 - 2003), Tsvangirai was very militant against Mugabe and was beaten and repeatedly arrested for it. Since June 2003,Tsvangirai has adopted a conciliatory tone torwards Mugabe except briefly in March 2007 when he again (briefly) became militant. Why protests are not popular and will always fail in Zimbabwe, in particular in Harare the Capital is that the majority of the residents are lily livered people who can even run away from their own shadows.Zimbabweans are very afraid of their (illegitimate) president, the army and the police. The army and the police supported by ZANU (PF) youths brigades and armed militias of Liberation war veterans and the Border Gezi trained youth are very brutal and notorious and don't hesitate to skin any trouble makers. The mentioned brutal forces are well supported by a notorious and ruthlessly efficient state secrete police called the CIO. The CIO is 100% devoted to fighting Mugabe's opponents both within and outside ZANU (PF). Outside government and ZANU (PF)the CIO tracks all serious MDC members and their leaders. In government and ZANU (PF), the CIO tracks all cabinet ministers, all senior army officers, all senior police officers and they also track each other. All this is done to ensure Mugabe is safely in power and will not removed from power except by reason of natural death. Prem, only a military intervention from powerful countries supported by the neighbouring countries will remove Mugabe from power. As chances of that intervention are very slim, Zimbabweans are only waiting for Mugabe to die of old age to exit power. The chances of that happenning are very brighty. At 85 years of age, the man is not getting younger or healthier. He now lives at the whims of God who decided to give him a long life.
Well, well , Its interesting indeed that staunch MDC-T supporters like maricho have now accepted that their western sponsored outfit has no capacity of staging an uprising, and also the fact that it never had that capacity and it never will..the reason is simple, no sane zimbabwean has time to waste doing sponsored, unruly street forays that's only gonna fill the pockets of MDC-T leaders with dirty Western money..and plunge the same Zimbabweans more and more into misery..Morgan and his cohorts in MDC-T have been used as cannon fodders by outsiders in blasting their very own kith and kin by calling for illegal economic sanctions..They were used to champion the interests of outsiders and their supporters have been the sole losers here..After a decade of fierce denial and lying to their supporters , they now conceded that there are illegal economic sanctions that have wrecked havoc and have left a trail of destruction on the economy..So , in a nutshell, these misguided men and women who campained for sanctions and defended them were being used by outsiders to flog their own supporters..well,morgan will find that its hard to build than to ruin when he gets in the thick of things in office.
MBilhazia, your ignorance runs rampant on these pages again. When I read the rubbish you write it amuses me. The Zimbabwe people need to go back to the bushwar like it fought before,and believe me JOC the joke could not handle it ! They (JOC) would be begging Selousi scouts to come back and help them fight instead of berating them. Cut off the power to Mugabe and his scum by night , blow up the enterences to his homes, just the way it used to be, just to the ones who claimed to free us , they are the new "Makiwa". People like Phiri , AK 47, Mbilhazia , taste your own medicine , you hated it in Rhodesia now lose your "makiwa" status in Zimbabwe.You can't stand it , even in power , nobody respects the likes of you ! Taking to the streets is not a good idea , it just gives the ZANU PF scum an opportunity to kill good people. Back to the bush and quietly do things. Find ZANU PF strongholds in the villages and show them what for ! Aluuta Continua.
well well whatever mabhiza - u forget MDC was formed in opposition to ZANU's continually ruinous and profligate regime in the first place neh! i'm going to ease the discomfort your comment has passed by admitting on your part that you're jes jesting!
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