13 October 2008
Harare — Former South African president Thabo Mbeki is expected to arrive soon in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, in a bid to salvage a power-sharing deal that is in danger of collapsing a month after it was signed.
The deal brokered by Mbeki - appointed as mediator by the South African Development Community (SADC) in 2007 - was hailed as a way out of the beleaguered country's political and economic morass, but within days of being signed on 15 September it began to run into obstacles.
President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have failed to agree on the allocation of cabinet portfolios and Mugabe unilaterally apportioned ministries at the end of last week, which the MDC subsequently rejected.
The two factions of the MDC - a larger one led by Morgan Tsvangirai and a breakaway faction led by Arthur Mutambara - met with Mugabe on 10 October and agreed the deal had deadlocked, and that Mbeki should be called in to resolve the impasse.
However, after the meeting Mugabe issued a government gazette announcing the cabinet posts, which have been distributed to ensure that ZANU-PF controls the key portfolios of defence, home affairs, foreign affairs, local government, justice and legal affairs, mines and agriculture, media and information, and women and youth affairs.
On 13 October Mugabe also swore in two vice presidents.
ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980 to the MDC and Tsvangirai was a couple of percentage points shy of claiming the presidency in the March 2008 elections. A run-off presidential election, which Mugabe won after Tsvangirai withdrew on the grounds that his supporters were being physically attacked and even killed, was dismissed as flawed by the international community.
According to the power-sharing deal, Mugabe retains the presidency and Tsvangirai is appointed as prime minister, but Tsvangirai has yet to be sworn in.
Tsvangirai's MDC were given ministries viewed as minor, such as economic planning, energy, health and child welfare, public service, social welfare, sport, arts and culture, water resources and national housing. Mutambara's MDC were handed three ministries: international cooperation, education, and industry and commerce. Mugabe did not allocate the finance portfolio.
Zimbabwe's official annual inflation rate is estimated at 231 million percent and the country is suffering acute shortages of food, water, foreign currency and electricity. The UN estimates that more than five million people - nearly half the population - will require food assistance in the first quarter of 2009.
The MDC said in statement that the party that had been trying to secure the ministries of finance, justice and legal affairs, economic planning, media and information, home affairs, foreign affairs, local government, women, gender and community development.
At an MDC rally in Harare on 12 October, attended by about 10,000 people, Tsvangirai conceded that the month-old deal was looking precarious.
"Some ministries are not negotiable. If Mugabe wants to take defence, then we take home affairs. If the marriage has irreconcilable differences then it is not unusual for divorce proceedings to begin. But we remain committed to the talks; if the talks collapse then it will be ZANU-PF which will cause that collapse."
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told IRIN that "The cabinet deadlock calls for urgent help and assistance from SADC, and the AU as the guarantors of the deal to unfreeze the impasse. MDC is concerned with the prolonged and protracted dialogue, considering that people are dying of hunger, factories remain closed, while school calendars have been disrupted and there are disease outbreaks."
European Union condemns 'power grab'
The European Union meeting of 27 foreign ministers in Luxembourg on 13 October condemned "the unilateral decision to form a new government which has not been agreed by all parties" in a statement, and has threatened more sanctions.
The sanctions imposed by the EU target about 170 of the country's ruling elite, as well as Mugabe and his second wife, Grace, and include a travel ban and the freezing of assets. Despite calls for sanctions to be lifted after the power-sharing deal was signed, the EU has adopted a wait-and-see approach.
"I think it is very important that a European signal goes out that we will have no part, and play no part, in supporting a power grab by the Mugabe regime," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters at the meeting.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
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Dear Mabhiza,
Please note that the MDC is a peoples party. Can the majotity of people in Zimbabwe who voted MDC despite threat of death, be as stupid as you think ?
Please do not use abusive terms of address towards Mr Tsvangirai, who is if you and your party is to be considered sincere, THE PRIME MINISTER ELECT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZIMBABWE.
Sanctions as you say have caused the decline of the ZW economy. Why then did even more stringent sanctions against the white Rhodesian regime spur the same economy into self sufficiency and sustained development?
You, like the present leadership of our country believe that people are stupid and must do as they are told. You believe that this is the African Way. You hate the west but would gladly own the latest Mercedes and send ytour children to western schools.
You are an embarassment to the rest of us Africans who know that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again because we won the war and the world is a very differnt palce now than it was in the 19th century.
We want to meet the world on equal terms and if your people are too paraniod and suspicious to get us the best deal at every western negotiating table then please allow us to send someone else to look for busness and represent us on the international forum.
WE WANT TO BE COUNTED WITH ALL THE REST OF THE PEOPLE ON THE PLANET.
GIVE US A CHANCE.
You must be joking or you are just ignorant or merely insincere!!!The sanctions on Rhodesia were never stringent in any sense. Some of us were working in Salisbury then and we know that you could get anything you want. The South Africans and the rest of Angloworld.com carried on with trade and commerce while the UK government protected the white rhodies from serious measures at the United Nations throughout the 20 years. l was a senior QA technician at CAPS where one of my duties was to check and confirm newly arrived consignments of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals. In fact l was the only African allowed in this area, during the time l was there, by Maurice Crammer, one of the three Jewish brothers who founded the company. We managed to acquire just about anything from overseas. Besides the Rhodies literary owned and ran the Port of Beira and Rhodesia, for all intent and purpose, was the fifth province of the Republic ... the rhodies did not need visas to go to South Africa. They went downsouth whenever they wanted!!! Clearly you do not know what you are talking about. Besides Zimbabwe is in the unfortunate position of being used as telling lesson of what would happen if the SouthAfricans or any other African country dare follow suit and occupy farms.. Musazofa makazviitazve. Aluta continua. That is why l have always maintained that Prime minister Tsvangi, for he is my national leader too, was used by forces of Angloworld.com hegemony in Africa .... people who have no interest in the well being of our children.
You must be joking or you are just ignorant or merely insincere!!!The sanctions on Rhodesia were never stringent in any sense. Some of us were working in Salisbury then and we know that you could get anything you want. The South Africans and the rest of Angloworld.com carried on with trade and commerce while the UK government protected the white rhodies from serious measures at the United Nations throughout the 20 years. l was a senior QA technician at CAPS where one of my duties was to check and confirm newly arrived consignments of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals. In fact l was the only African allowed in this area, during the time l was there, by Maurice Crammer, one of the three Jewish brothers who founded the company. We managed to acquire just about anything from overseas. Besides the Rhodies literary owned and ran the Port of Beira and Rhodesia, for all intent and purpose, was the fifth province of the Republic ... the rhodies did not need visas to go to South Africa. They went downsouth whenever they wanted!!! Clearly you do not know what you are talking about. Besides Zimbabwe is in the unfortunate position of being used as telling lesson of what would happen if the SouthAfricans or any other African country dare follow suit and occupy farms.. Musazofa makazviitazve. Aluta continua. That is why l have always maintained that Prime minister Tsvangi, for he is my national leader too, was used by forces of Angloworld.com hegemony in Africa .... people who have no interest in the well being of our children.
You must be joking or you are just ignorant or merely insincere!!!The sanctions on Rhodesia were never stringent in any sense. Some of us were working in Salisbury then and we know that you could get anything you want. The South Africans and the rest of Angloworld.com carried on with trade and commerce while the UK government protected the white rhodies from serious measures at the United Nations throughout the 20 years. l was a senior QA technician at CAPS where one of my duties was to check and confirm newly arrived consignments of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals. In fact l was the only African allowed in this area, during the time l was there, by Maurice Crammer, one of the three Jewish brothers who founded the company. We managed to acquire just about anything from overseas. Besides the Rhodies literary owned and ran the Port of Beira and Rhodesia, for all intent and purpose, was the fifth province of the Republic ... the rhodies did not need visas to go to South Africa. They went downsouth whenever they wanted!!! Clearly you do not know what you are talking about. Besides Zimbabwe is in the unfortunate position of being used as telling lesson of what would happen if the SouthAfricans or any other African country dare follow suit and occupy farms.. Musazofa makazviitazve. Aluta continua. That is why l have always maintained that Prime minister Tsvangi, for he is my national leader too, was used by forces of Angloworld.com hegemony in Africa .... people who have no interest in the well being of our children.
Dear Mabhiza,
Please note that the MDC is a peoples party. Can the majotity of people in Zimbabwe who voted MDC despite threat of death, be as stupid as you think ?
Please do not use abusive terms of address towards Mr Tsvangirai, who is if you and your party is to be considered sincere, THE PRIME MINISTER ELECT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZIMBABWE.
Sanctions as you say have caused the decline of the ZW economy. Why then did even more stringent sanctions against the white Rhodesian regime spur the same economy into self sufficiency and sustained development?
You, like the present leadership of our country believe that people are stupid and must do as they are told. You believe that this is the African Way. You hate the west but would gladly own the latest Mercedes and send ytour children to western schools.
You are an embarassment to the rest of us Africans who know that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again because we won the war and the world is a very differnt palce now than it was in the 19th century.
We want to meet the world on equal terms and if your people are too paraniod and suspicious to get us the best deal at every western negotiating table then please allow us to send someone else to look for busness and represent us on the international forum.
WE WANT TO BE COUNTED WITH ALL THE REST OF THE PEOPLE ON THE PLANET.
GIVE US A CHANCE.
Dear Mabhiza,
Please note that the MDC is a peoples party. Can the majotity of people in Zimbabwe who voted MDC despite threat of death, be as stupid as you think ?
Please do not use abusive terms of address towards Mr Tsvangirai, who is if you and your party is to be considered sincere, THE PRIME MINISTER ELECT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZIMBABWE.
Sanctions as you say have caused the decline of the ZW economy. Why then did even more stringent sanctions against the white Rhodesian regime spur the same economy into self sufficiency and sustained development?
You, like the present leadership of our country believe that people are stupid and must do as they are told. You believe that this is the African Way. You hate the west but would gladly own the latest Mercedes and send ytour children to western schools.
You are an embarassment to the rest of us Africans who know that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again because we won the war and the world is a very differnt palce now than it was in the 19th century.
We want to meet the world on equal terms and if your people are too paraniod and suspicious to get us the best deal at every western negotiating table then please allow us to send someone else to look for busness and represent us on the international forum.
WE WANT TO BE COUNTED WITH ALL THE REST OF THE PEOPLE ON THE PLANET.
GIVE US A CHANCE.
Mugga's been there since 1980 and he has destroyed the place. That's the fact.Are you so blind that you cannot see that Mugga never had a plan to build a better Zimbabwe.He and his mates were there to rob the joint.
See all comments (50).
Many analysts in Zim lament that the emergence of the Western sponsored MDC in 1999, marked the start of a decline in Zim political standards..That pothole faced tsvangirai and his cohorts came as Western sponsored proxies who trashed all cultural values Zimbabweans had cherished since independence, like the liberation struggle(1966-80) national events& ironically, even black empowerment programmes..MDC-T leaders even celebrated droughts that have plagued Zim for several years now..This western sponsored outfit instantly became an appendage of disgruntled white farmers, hardcore apatheid remnants, &hardline Rhodesians against the interests of its own kith and kin, The illegal economic sanctions& isolation Tsvangirai grovelled for led to the present tragic state of affairs..The stooge's Lack of concern for Zimbabweans reeling under MDC-T courted economic sanctions is astounding.,as he's now soulmates with McGee in playing nonsensical golf at this critical period..That clueless tsvangi is just an empty vessel with no mind of its own..Honestly , how can anyone be used by outsiders in championing foreign interests at the expense of your own blood relatives' interests.As far as we're concerned , the finance ministry is the only one still open for negotiation..The other key ministries were already allocated and thats final..The swearing in of 2vice presidents by President R.G.M is commendable & is a clearest sign that we remain resolute& resilient and we've stood the test of time..