Chimoio — Zimbabwean Prime Minister and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, told reporters in the central Mozambican city of Chimoio on Tuesday that he remains committed to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that he signed with Robert Mugabe, leader of the ruling ZANU-PF, last year.

Tsvangirai was visiting Mozambique to meet with President Armando Guebuza in his capacity as chairperson of the SADC (Southern African Development Community) defence and security troika, in order to discuss the latest Zimbabwean crisis.

"I met with President Guebuza to analyse the crisis that has hit the Zimbabwean inclusive government", Tsvangirai said. "Guebuza promised me that a mission from the troika will visit Zimbabwe to review the GPA".

The MDC fears that ZANU-PF has not been negotiating with it in good faith. Months after the formation of the inclusive government in February, pending issues remain unsolved. Key amongst these are Mugabe's unilateral re-appointment as governor of the central bank of Gideon Gono, the man who oversaw the destruction of the Zimbabwean currency, and grotesque levels of hyper-inflation second only in recent history to the Hungarian inflation of 1946.

A second unilateral appointment by Mugabe that the MDC rejects is that of Johannes Tomana as Attorney General, accused of harassing human rights activists while taking no measures against the ZANU-PF militias responsible for murdering opposition activists during the 2008 elections.

The MDC's patience with ZANU-PF snapped last week, when the MDC's treasurer and appointee for the post of Deputy Agriculture Minister, Roy Bennett, was re-arrested on spurious treason charges. So on Friday, Tsvangirai announced that the MDC was "disengaging" from the inclusive government - but not resigning from it.

On Tuesday, while Tsvangirai visited Mozambique, two Zimbabwean cabinet meetings went ahead. Mugabe held a meeting attended by the ZANU-PF ministers (and by the minor MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara), while the MDC ministers held a separate meeting.

Other issues related to implementing the GPA that remain unsolved include the appointment of provincial governors, a promised audit of land ownership, and the transformation of the public media so that they are no longer ZANU-PF mouthpieces.

Also in Chimoio on Tuesday was SADC Executive Secretary Tomas Salomao, who confirmed to reporters that the appointments of Gono, Tomana and the provincial governors are high n the list of the MDC's pending issues.

Tsvangirai wanted to deal with these problems, and has come to Mozambique to transmit his position to Guebuza. "Obviously when they talked alone, they dealt with other matters of detail", said Salomao.

Asked about the tensions caused by the re-arrest of Bennett, Salomao said "there have been new developments that have made Tsvangirai intercede with the chairperson of the defence and security troika (i.e. Guebuza)". The most alarming "new development" is that Tomana himself, despite his controversial status, has announced that he will personally head the prosecution of Bennett.

In a Tuesday interview, he claimed that he was "motivated by the mandate that I have of protecting the country from any security threat and the threat that I am talking about is external from countries such as Britain, Australia or any other such country". Tomana was thus suggesting that Bennett is a foreign agent.

Tsvangirai intends to continue his tour of the region with meetings with South African President Jacob Zuma, and Congolese President Joseph Kabila, who is the current SADC chairperson. He will then return to Harare to meet the two men with whom he signed the GPA, Mugabe and Mutambara.

Salomao was optimistic that the latest crisis can be resolved. He said that on Wednesday he will meet with former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is still the SADC facilitator on Zimbabwe. He hopes to obtain some ideas from Mbeki that will help prepare the troika's mission to Zimbabwe, which should take place some time next week.

Salomao added that Tsvangirai recognises that Zimbabweans should solve their own problems, and not create the perception of a country that is in permanent crisis.