Harare — MOVEMENT for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, this week boycotted a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Troika meeting in Swaziland meant to try to break the stalemate over the apportionment of ministries in a government of national unity, in protest against delays by President Robert Mugabe's administration in issuing him with a passport.
But analysts view Tsvan-girai's actions as part of applying pressure on ZANU-PF to capitulate to his party's demands for the key ministries, especially of Home Affairs, Finance and Foreign Affairs.
They said while the MDC leader felt belittled as Prime Minister-designate to be travelling on an Emergency Travel Document (ETD), Tsvangirai was playing politics so that he is given due respect by President Mugabe and ZANU-PF.
"Tsvangirai is putting on new boxing gloves," observed Professor David Moore, a political analyst with the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
"I don't think he is throwing in the towel. Instead he is preparing for the last round of the fight, which is getting nasty and is readying himself by applying pressure using the passport issue," added Moore.
Apart from ramping up pressure on President Mugabe, the no-show in Swaziland on Monday exposed ZANU-PF's alleged "insincerity" in the talks, Moore said.
"It has shown what kind of a person Tsvangirai is dealing with in (President) Mugabe and in the facilitator," he said.
Eldred Masunungure, a professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said:
"Tsvangirai is not only putting pressure of having key ministries but he is also highlighting the ill-treatment he has been subjected to and possibly confirming the argument that ZANU-PF and President Mugabe have been negotiating in bad faith."
ZANU-PF could be using the issue of the passport to ensure that Tsvangirai does not "misbehave", said Masu-nungure.
"In politics anything is possible. ZANU-PF could have seen the issue of passport as means of coercion for Tsva-ngirai to behave but he might now be using it to achieve his political ends.
"He has greatly exposed and embarrassed President Mugabe and ZANU-PF in front of the entire SADC leadership who have all along sided with (President) Mugabe save for Botswana and other few countries in the region," he said.
Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede released a statement on Monday refuting allegations by the MDC leader saying his offices had gone out of its way to issue Tsvangirai with a travel document.
The RG's office had to open on a Sunday to facilitate the issuing of an ETD to Tsvangirai's emissary and deputy MDC-T treasurer, Elton Mangoma.
The aborted summit will convene next week in Harare under the chairmanship of Mozambican President Arma-ndo Guebuza.
ZANU-PF chief negotiator, Patrick Chinamasa accused the MDC of lacking commitment to the success of the negotiations.
"We trust the MDC are committed as we are in ZANU-PF to finalise this matter and hope the 27th of October meeting will provide an opportunity to conclude the matter. We are looking forward to a speedy resolution. We have wasted too much time haggling over issues which are of little consequence," Chinamasa was quoted by the state-controlled daily Herald as saying.
But leader of the African National Co-ngress, Jacob Zuma, blamed Zimbabwe's government for holding up negotiations on a power-sharing agreement with the opposition.
Zuma on Tuesday called on other Afri-can countries to in-crease pressure on both sides to implement the deal, urging Zimbabwean politicians to try harder to break the impasse over the allocation of ministries.
"Now you cannot have this kind of a situation when you are dealing with such an important matter. One of the very key figures cannot attend because he does not have a passport. I think that sounds weird," he said.
There is a general consensus that the country urgently needs a substantive government to curtail the impact of the prevailing humanitarian crisis panning out in urban and rural areas where an estimated 5,1 million people are in urgent need of food handouts.
Zimbabwe needs more than US$200 million to purchase about 600 000 tonnes of grain to avert starvation but analysts say the government does not have that kind of money and would need the intervention of international humanitarian aid agencies.
Masunungure said it was folly for Mudede to tell the nation that his offices were no longer processing passports due to a shortage of paper.
The issue of Tsvangirai's passport came up during the four days of negotiations chaired by former South African leader Thabo Mbeki, but was played down after President Mugabe made assurances the matter would be sorted out after negotiations to allocate ministries were finalised.
Not even the offer to use the private jet of Swaziland King Mswati III could entice Tsvangirai from leaving for the summit on Tuesday.
His team of negotiators, led by chief negotiator Tendai Biti, remained holed-up in Joha-nnesburg, where it held a press conference in support of their leader. Biti denounced the ruling ZANU-PF party and called for an emergency summit of the SADC, the main regional body.
"There's no reality check on the part of ZANU-PF, there is no readiness on their part to engage in a co-operative government with Morgan Tsva-ngirai and the MDC," Biti said.
"It's time that a full extraordinary summit of SADC is convened not only to look at outstanding issues, but to say to President Mugabe 'enough is enough'.
Moore suggested President Mugabe could be waiting for the ZANU-PF congress in December before giving in to Tsvangirai's demands for key positions in the envisaged new inclusive government.
"I think he does not want to go to the December congress after surrendering powerful ministries to Tsvangirai. He knows this will be a start of the collapse of ZANU-PF. He is mindful of the ZANU-PF politics."
Kembo Mohadi, Home Affairs Minister, told The Financial Gazette two weeks ago that President Mugabe was handling Tsvangirai's passport and that the MDC leader should directly talk to President Mugabe.
"If he has a problem with his passport he knows who to talk to. He should talk to his superior in government," said Mohadi then.
Botswana, a rabid critic of President Mugabe, said denying Tsvangirai travel documents was "totally unacceptable and an indication of bad faith".
"The only way forward is a re-run of the presidential election under international supervision in order to avoid a repetition of the violence and political intimidation," read its statement in part.
Meanwhile, The United States threatened on Monday to impose new sanctions against Zimbabwe's President Mugabe if he reneges on a power-sharing deal with the country's opposition.
State Department spokes-man Robert Wood said more punitive measures were possible if President Mugabe did not negotiate "in good faith" with Tsvangirai.
"Should Mugabe renege on this power-sharing agreement, the United States is prepared to impose additional sanctions," he told reporters but declined to provide details of what kind of measures were being planned.
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Hello! Jacob Zuma is right.MDC,MDC-T,and ZANU-PF are Playing a Circle of Chess with the people lives who need our help very bad.What a Crying Shame. If we can get Obama elected here in America ,we will try to get him to help unite the 53 States Of Africa too. Oweij Liebo Tarboro,North Carolina USA.
"Get Obama to unify Africa"
That implies DEMOCRACY.
Where in Africa is democracy paramount. Which country has has the right to criticize Zimbabwe. I think that Africa needs to do a lot of soul searching now, otherwise during the coming economic downturn, they will lose out. Get rid of Dictators, Corrupt Governments and Tribal attitudes. This world is too small for this. Even more important....Life is too short.
Leviboone, who are the "we?" You are trying to make it look as though you have power in America that will make Mr Obama listen to you. YOU influence Obama? HA!Ha!HA! What a laugh. You have no power but are at the mercy of the Americans. I wonder why you ran away from Africa.
Leviboone does have one thing right though. For a change. That Mugabe has been playing a circle of chess with the people of Zimbabwe. The election was held in March. If the result of that election were allowed to stand. And I mean the true result as it stood before the 5 weeks it took to release the published results, the true results that were posted out the front of polling stations on the day people voted. I 100% believe that the results gave Tsvangirai more than the 50% required, otherwise why the 5 week delay to produce results that took 1 day to be released in the second "election". If these results were allowed to stand, and Mugabe had respected the will of the people from this point, the MDC would be 6 months into their government, and Zimbabwe would already be 6 months on the road to recovery. And still we are waiting for Mugabe to give up power that isnt rightfully his. And who suffers? The poeple of Zimbabwe. The very people Mugabe serves.
Awt_independent, You are a fool if by now you do not know that Tsvangirai did not win the presidential elections. Even you boss, McGee, acknowledged that his stooge failed to garner the required support to get the presidency. This is why he had to travel to South Africa and drag him by the color to come back and contest the re-run. If the idiot had won outrightly, McGee would not have wasted his time forcing Boycott to come, considering that he had more than 200 CIA operatives criss-crossing the country during the elections.
The mare fact that McGee had to use force to get Tsvangi to come back to Zimbabwe is enough proof that the stooge does not listen to anyone else except McGee. Even the British are not happy with Tsvangirai's leaning towards the Americans when it was their project in the first place.
The idiot will regret his actions of selling out and causing the suffering of Zimbabweans. He has to shoulder the blame not only of the suffering of the people but also of the instransigent and arrogency he is showing to the SADC leaders.
Therefore plse take note that President Mugabe did NOT and has NOT "played a circle of chess with the people of Zimbabwe". The President has been consistent and has shown respect to leaders of the region who have asked him to give Boycott time to swing with McGee. He has the people of Zimbabwe at heart and he shares their sorrows as they face all problems caused by one man, TSVANGIRAI.
The President is working around the clock to provide inputs, tractors and all that is required to the people of Zimbabwe for the coming agric season. No amount of demonisation will seperate/isolate him from the people where he came from. He is a people's President and to the people he will always go.
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