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Zimbabwe: Power Sharing Deal Fails First Test of Goodwill

12 October 2008

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Nairobi — Despite signing a power-sharing agreement several weeks ago, President Robert Mugabe and his arch-rival and new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have failed to agree on who will control which portfolios in a new Cabinet.

Several meetings between the two men aimed at resolving the issue have broken up without agreement.

At issue are the two lucrative Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance.

With Zanu-PF side having insisted on taking the two critical security ministries of Defence and National Intelligence, the MDC has demanded that the Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance to be given to their side.

The upshot is that a new sense of gloom has set in in Zimbabwe with analysts predicting "cohabitension" in the fragile power-sharing arrangement.

"The fact that they can't agree in these early stages is a bad sign. This arrangement may collapse when the government starts functioning and taking hard decisions," said Sydney Msamvu, an analyst for the International Crisis Group in Zimbabwe.

Most analysts say that Mugabe is digging in because he is hostage to advisers who accuse him of having sold out.

On the other hand, Tsvangirai wants portfolios to be shared equally in accordance with power sharing deal.

Agreement on portfolio sharing has also been affected by the diminished clout of the mediator -- former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

"He no longer carries the clout he held, having been rendered a lame duck facilitator," said Mr Msamvu.

Apparently, Mbeki had conducted the mediation process in a personalised manner without the full backing and involvement of South Africa's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The majority of the back up staff for the mediations were bureaucrats serving in the Office of the Presidency. For instance, Frank Shivakali, who was the main backroom negotiator, is the Director-General in the Office of the Presidency.

Another key player, legal adviser to the mediation team, Dr Munyaku Gumbi, was also from Mbeki's office. Local Government Minister, Sydney Mufamaki, another key member of the mediation team, resigned from the Cabinet following Mbeki's departure from office.

"Even if Mbeki were to agree to resume mediation, there will be no institutional memory," Msamvu added.

What will work is a system underwritten by the South African government and fully backed by SADC and the AU," said the analyst.

With Mugabe and Tsvangirai now locked in a stalemate over control of key portfolios such as Finance, Security and Information, the power-sharing deal appears to have failed its first test of goodwill.

As we went to press, Mugabe had rejected calls for the return of Mbeki to help end the deadlock over the formation of a unity government, saying the stalemate is surmountable.

Tsvangirai said only Mbeki could break the impasse.

Mbeki had also indicated that he was preparing to fly to Harare to rescue the agreement viewed as the only solution to Zimbabwe's decade old political and economic crisis.

However, Zanu-PF chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa said it was not right to call in Mbeki at this stage as this would be tantamount to asking him to "mediate in a dispute over which side of the bed each of us should sleep."

Chinamasa spoke as Mugabe called for another meeting with Tsvangirai and Mutambara on Friday to set guidelines for negotiators in their consultations in the allocation of ministries.

"We should learn to overcome our challenges and as parties we feel we should not find easy ways to avoid taking hard decisions," he said.

However, he criticised the opposition for engaging in "megaphone diplomacy," saying this violated the confidentiality clause of the agreement.

Tsvangirai formally declared a deadlock in the talks and said his party had approached the SADC (Southern African Development Community), African Union (AU) and Mbeki for help to break the impasse.

The MDC leader said talks could not continue without the involvement of Mbeki.

"We have declared a deadlock and therefore the process cannot move forward except in the presence of the facilitator [Mbeki]," Tsvangirai said.

We have communicated this position to the AU and to SADC as well as to the facilitator and have confidence that our African brothers will do everything in their power to ensure that this issue is resolved with speed."

Crisis-weary Zimbabweans were banking on the success of the deal to end a decade of economic decline that has forced millions into exile and left close to a third of the population in dire need of food aid.

Zanu-PF has been accused of being insensitive to the suffering of millions of Zimbabweans by stalling the process.

Chinamasa said: "We have to sort this out in the interest of the people. We have to put our people first."

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate -- already the world's highest -- has soared to 231,000,000 per cent, newly released official figures show.

The rise -- from 11,200,000 per cent -- was largely due to increases in the prices of bread and cereals.

It is the first indication that the landmark power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai has not eased the country's economic crisis.

The UN estimates that two million people are in need of food aid in that country.

Critics of Mugabe say he triggered the economic crisis by seizing white-owned farms for land redistribution.

Mugabe blames Western sanctions which target him and his chief supporters for wrecking Zimbabwe's economy.

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