Caiphas Chimhete
10 January 2009
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai is expected back in the country this week for a crucial party meeting that will decide the fate of the stalled power-sharing talks with Zanu PF.
This follows an MDC consultative meeting in South Africa last week, which deliberated on the status of the talks, the humanitarian situation in the country and the assault on the party's structures by state agents.
The news of Tsvangirai's imminent return emerged as pressure piled on South African President Kgalema Motlanthe to intervene in the Zimbabwean crisis.
The South African leader chairs Sadc, which along with the African Union (AU) are guarantors of the power-sharing deal between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations.
Authoritative sources confirmed Tsvangirai, who has been in self-imposed exile in neighbouring Botswana since last November, would meet his national executive on Sunday.
This would be followed by a yet-to-be confirmed meeting of the party's national council.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa could not confirm or deny that Tsvangirai was about to return.
"There is a security element in the whole issue, so I can't put the life of the president in danger," said Chamisa, who referred The Standard to Tsvangirai's spokesperson George Sibotshiwe.
Sibotshiwe could not be reached for comment.
However, sources said the MDC consultative meeting resolved that Tsvangirai should come back to attend the crucial national executive meeting that would decide whether the party will continue participating in the talks.
The meeting, sources said, also examined strategies the party would take in the event that President Robert Mugabe forms a government without the MDC.
The meeting also endorsed the party's previous position that all cabinet and senior government posts be shared equitably.
Mugabe has already indicated that he would constitute a government next month even without the two MDC formations.
Chamisa said Sunday's meeting would review the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed on September 15 last year between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations.
The agreement, brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki on behalf of Sadc, stalled as Mugabe and Tsvangirai wrangled over who should control key ministries and the allocation of top government posts.
The impasse worsened with the recent abductions of scores of opposition and human rights activists that started in November.
"We will look at progress, or lack of it, of the political dialogue and the extent of our success in terms of all the outstanding issues," Chamisa said.
The party will also discuss the current humanitarian crisis looking at such issues as the food crisis and the cholera outbreak which has killed close to 2000 people, according to latest World Health Organisation figures.
Over half of Zimbabwe's 12,5 million people require food aid.
"It's a helicopter assessment of the food situation, human rights and security of persons, in particular the abductees and the court processes as well as the stubborn machinations of Zanu PF," Chamisa said.
State security agents have abducted more than 40 MDC officials and human rights activists since November last year in what the opposition said was an attempt to destroy its structures.
Some of the abductees including Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) director Jestina Mukoko have appeared in court facing allegations of recruiting people for military training in Botswana to topple Mugabe's administration. They deny the allegations.
Chamisa said the MDC had written to Mugabe requesting a meeting in an effort to salvage the power-sharing deal.
"We have written to Mugabe indicating that we want a meeting between him and president Tsvangirai to bring finality and closure to the dialogue," he said. "We can't keep Zimbabweans guessing, we have to close the chapter on dialogue, whether in success or failure."
Local journalists, worried about the government's assault on the media in spite of the September 15 power-sharing agreement, petitioned Motlanthe asking him to ensure that Mugabe respects the pact.
The petition delivered to the South African embassy in Harare was also copied to the chairman of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, King Mswati III of Swaziland, the facilitator of the Zimbabwe talks Thabo Mbeki, MDC leaders Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara ,and Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salamao.
It was also copied to Lovemore Moyo, the Speaker of Parliament, Senate president Ednah Madzongwe, chief negotiators for the MDC formations Tendai Biti and Professor Welshman Ncube, and Patrick Chinamasa.
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My advice to MDC is that Zanu PF should first coin a new name for an opposition party before they decide to join a government of national unity. I have seen a post on this site which made me think otherwise, Zanu PF has no vernecular word for opposition they call an oppostion party or member vatengesi or mutengesi - sellout. Until Zanu PF puts its terms correctly no sane person would join such a silly setup where you are called sellout and they call themselves non-sellouts.
Chachacha;
A sellout, be it party or individual, remains a SELLOUT, whether inside or outside govt. A sellout and a Patriotic Zimbabwean are like water and oil; they will never mix or work together until the sellout stops selling out. To be able to work with revolutionaries in Zanu-pf, the MDC needs to shed-off its sellout mentality and become a patriotic and constructive opposition that defense the principles for which the war was fought in the first place.
This all must get rather confusing for Mugabe. A supposed patriot, yet he sells out to the Chinese. How many millions of dollars worth of zimbabwean minerals did he sell to the Chinese at below market rates in exchange for his retirement mansion?
Actually, want the war fought so that Zimbabweans could all vote to decide their future. Didnt Mugabe campaign on the basis of one man, one vote. Clearly these ideals are out the window when they mean that you lose power yourself. Its funny how greed for power and money take over. All these supposed moralistic values out the window when you might lose your grip on power. Mugabes and the ZANU=PF's corrupt greed for power and money is the problem in Zimbabwe today.
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Tukunya ndebvu - Most of us here know that Zanu PF's slang for opposition members or party its sellout, failure you call it challenges, travel bans you call them economic sanctions and someone who was Zanla you call him/her comrade. You hardly used comrade for Joshua Nkomo or Ndabaningi Sithole otherwise that would have been a slip of the tongue. Saka you use words you don’t understand.
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