Harare — Former President Thabo Mbeki will travel to Zimbabwe on Monday to try to assist in a political deadlock over the agreed upon unity government in that country.
Speaking to BuaNews, his spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga said he would meet with the country's political leadership to continue the SADC- mandated facilitation process which he began in March which is designed to end years of political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
"Yes he [Mbeki] and his delegation are flying to Harare later this afternoon to make sure there is a solution to the power-sharing deal," said Mr Ratshitanga.
He told BuaNews that Mr Mbeki will be accompanied by a facilitation team of former provincial and local government minister Sydney Mufamadi, director general in the presidency Rev Frank Chikane and Advocate Mojanku Gumbi.
President Robert Mugabe, opposition MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and head of a breakaway faction of the opposition Arthur Mutambara resolved to approach Mr Mbeki after failing again to break the impasse over Cabinet posts.
Mr Mbeki, who clinched the Zimbabwe power-sharing deal days before he was forced to give up South Africa's presidency by his ruling ANC party, has agreed to continue his mediation role.
The South African government supports Mr Mbeki's role and has agreed that he needs to continue with the mediation.
"Mr Mbeki's facilitation efforts in Zimbabwe have proven his dispassionate vision for a lasting political solution to the challenges facing Zimbabwe," said President Kgalema Motlanthe.
In a statement issued earlier this month, Mr Motlanthe said: "Our government has full confidence in Mr Mbeki's ability to build on the historic successes already made in the power sharing negotiations under his mediation."
The power-sharing agreement signed by Zimbabwe's three biggest political parties stipulates that Mr Mugabe will remain president while Mr Tsvangirai becomes prime minister and Mr Mutambara deputy prime minister.
The agreement which is outlined under a Sept 15 power-sharing deal, allots 15 Cabinet posts to ZANU PF, 13 to the Tsvangirai-led MDC and three to Mutambara's faction.
However the bare-bones agreement does not say who gets which specific posts and the rival parties have since the signing of the agreement wrangled over who should control the important ministries of home affairs, finance, local government, foreign affairs.
For this reason the deadlock is attributed to disagreements over ministries of finance and home affairs.
If agreement is not reached, Mr Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of the deal if new mediation efforts fail to break a deadlock over cabinet posts.
Crisis-weary Zimbabweans had hoped a power-sharing government would be quickly established to begin work to reverse an economic crisis.
This week, Zimbabwe's economy plumbed to new lows when the government Central Statistical Office released fresh figures showing annual inflation at 231 million percent, the highest such rate in the world.
Hyperinflation is the most visible sign of Zimbabwe's deep recession that has left more than 80 percent of the labour force without jobs and triggered shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency. - BuaNews-NNN
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Tsvangirai's Western sponsors have no shame at all, over the continued blatant interference in our domestic affairs..Even when all the 3 parties signed a broad based agreement that condemned all forms of external interference..The frenzy & hysteria in Europe after the allocation of cabinet posts on saturday clearly shows that Britain is behind tsvangirai's renewed stubbornness..Miliband's utterances, as if he's tsvangi's spokesman..EU, US, please BACK OFF!! from our zim affairs, even if you have a clueless stooge you handle..
mabhiza is an idiot. the eu and britain have no interest in running zimbabwe. there is nothing to run. they are interested in fixing the humanitarian crisis in that country, but this idiot probably doen't need any help because he is stealing from the impoverished. how can mugabe unilaterally allocate cabinet posts? but it probably suits the idiot.
Lexus u are the most idiotic person I have ever known. If by now u do not know that imperialists have interests not only in Zimbabwe but in the whole of the third world then it only goes to show how unintelligent u are. There is a lot to get in Zimbabwe. Lest u did not know, Zimbabwe has all the best minerals in the world. Zimbabwe has the best educated workforce in the world - no wonder why they are stealing our doctors, nurses and all the professionals u can think of. How do u say that they want to fix the humanitarian situation in the country when they are the ones who created it in the first place - they imposed sanctions on the country. Your MDC campaigned for the sanctions that are now hurting the innocent people. What are u going to do now that the American empire is crumblingin your face? President Mugabe is the legitimate Head of State and Government of Zimbabwe, hence he has the right to appoint cabinet. The agreement and the constitution says he does so in consultation with the Vice Presidents and the Prime Minster designate and his deputies. He did that for the past month and I think its high time we have a cabinet so that governament starts working to serve the people instead of waiting for the undecided MDC (who do not know whether to go along with the agreement or not) who are continuously changing the goal posts the imperial powers. What do we hope to achieve by waiting for Tsvangirai who does not have a mind of his own? The guy is just dumb - he does not think except regugitating what McGee tells his during their so-called swings. To hell with you and your Tsvangirai, if u want to withdraw from the deal plse do that with pleasure, life will continue after u are gone but remember that will be the end of u coz the people now can see u for what u are - puppets of the US and Britain.
Tanuya,and the other joker, you are definitely Zanu.90% of the Zimbos are fed up with you people and yet you rant on the net under the guise of colonialism.Growup and stop crying over the west.It is shameful to me as African to hear another African always blaming the whiteman for our problems as if we Blacks don't have brains to run our own affairs.But I can understand what you Zanus are up to, PASSING THE BUCK!!!!Shameless bunch of thieves and murderers.
No! You are wrong ss_conteh, I am Zanu 101%. I am not ashamed to say that because Zanu-pf is the party of the people, it is a revolutionary party, it is the party of the future. Just go back a bit to the 29 March 2008 elections and you will understand what I am talking about. With shelves empty, McGee bribing voters through ZESN and all the other NGOs Zanu-pf managed to score highly like that. Where a similar situation existed during election the ruling party could not secure a single seat. Had Zanu-pf not been infiltrated by McGee and his western friends it would have swept all the seats including in the urban areas - remember Makoni and Dabengwa's antics at the finishing line. Anyway that is now water under the bridge, what we need now is to work for Zimbabwe and its people. Its up to you and your MDC, in particular Tasvangirai, to stop selling the country to the Americans and the British so that we can do what we want as Zimbabweans without interference.
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