The country's three political leaders are reported to have agreed to drop several outstanding issues, which have been crippling the coalition government, and to focus on only three related to senior appointments.
According to the weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper Morgan Tsvangirai, Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara agreed at a meeting in June to drop everything else and concentrate on resolving the dispute around the appointments of Roy Bennett, Johannes Tomana and Gideon Gono.
Despite the power sharing deal making it clear senior appointments have to be done by consensus among the partners, Mugabe went ahead and unilaterally appointed the Reserve Bank governor Gono and Attorney General Tomana. He has additionally refused to swear in Roy Bennett, the MDC-T choice for Deputy Agriculture Minister, citing a dubious treason trial in which Bennett was acquitted.
The paper says the three principals wrote a letter to South African President Jacob Zuma, the chief facilitator, and advised him on the areas of agreement and disagreement. Mutambara was asked to comment on the letter but told the paper, 'I cannot discuss the contents and details of that communication with the media. Those communications are confidential and we cannot talk about them in public or in the media.'
The response from the Deputy Prime Minister typifies the general attitude of politicians in the country who believe ordinary people have no right to information that will directly affect their lives. The result of this has been the fact that most news stories are based on hearsay and speculation. Then the politicians can criticize the media for its inaccuracies.
Analysts say for a country battling to recover from economic collapse, information on the endless talks around the non functioning unity government is also vital for decision makers.
But MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa refuted the Zimbabwe Independent story and told Newsreel none of the outstanding issues were dropped. He said what had happened was that the principals had agreed on those issues, what was left was to see if they would be implemented. There is however a complete deadlock on Gono, Tomana and Bennett which is why they want SADC to intervene. In addition to this there had been fresh breaches of the GPA by Mugabe after the ZANU PF leader unilaterally appointed judges and ambassadors this year.
This week Zuma dispatched one of his top envoys to Zimbabwe, in yet another attempt to try to kick-start the talks. Former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj arrived Tuesday and met separately with the three party principals the following day. Once again officials were very coy about releasing any information to the media. But it was reported elsewhere that South Africa wanted to bridge the divide between ZANU PF and its partners before a Southern African Development Community summit in Namibia in August.
Meanwhile it's reported Zimbabwe might not even be on the agenda of the SADC summit, if Mugabe and those lobbying for him have their way. While Tsvangirai and the MDC are pushing for Zimbabwe's inclusion as an agenda item Mugabe is said to be leaning on his longtime ally, DRC President Joseph Kabila, who is the current SADC chair. Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, the incoming chair, also has close links to Mugabe and is not expected to adopt a robust approach to the Zimbabwe crisis.
It remains to be seen if SADC will follow the lead of the recent African Union Summit, which conveniently - for Mugabe - left Zimbabwe off the agenda. If they do, it will be yet another indication that African leaders have little concern for human rights abuses on the continent.
Comments 1 to 5 of 8 Post a comment
" .. resolving the dispute around the appointments of Roy Bennett, .."
If the rhodie treasonous bastard were a native, would we still be reading about him =- except i8n the obituaries?
Are the patriotic sovereign natives of maZimbabwe labouring under a pall of inferiority complex OR are they exercising racism against the native OR are they damn scared of the white man?
.
Do you wonder why these rhodie vuvuzelas - like kjrs120, DL, Kaiser Warren - keep on ranting in the ZIM section about Africa and the natives - yet they don't rush home to their vile euro badlands?
.
1) 'cause it scares them to imagine what their fate would have been upon birth:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10799539
.
2) and they know that euro-badlands are NOT the lands of sweet dreams! No way - not really:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38362152/ns/health/#slice-2
.
3) and, O holy witch! These murderous rhodie criminals are really scared of putting up with their fellow euro-psychopaths:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1168446/posts
http://kajuju.com/?p=703
STILL, they should be kicked out.
And, as surely as Mbuya Nehanda watches over us, they will be kicked out.
Glory, Mwari - The Presence.
By entering into the unity govt' the MDC saved Zimbabwe from total collapse. If the MDC hadn't signed the agreement Zany Pf would have fallen apart within a year (after looting the country and killing as many people as they could). It has now been 2 years and there has been virtually no progress.
All Zany PF is doing is delaying their ultimate demise.
The MDC did save Zimbabwe from total collapse. The country was just about to fall completely over the cliff before the Unity gov't. We all admire well run gov't and International corporations. Why, because they do not just talk, but produce. All progressive countries and corporation have one thing in common, they change leaders frequently to bring in new blood and fresh ideas. The MDC represented new blood from the old unproductive Zanu-pf policies. Change is good and Zanu-pf also needs to change somethings and leadership within to remain relevant!...but will they?
Phiri;
You, together with your friend Zyphl are totally wrong that Zimbabwe was "just about to fall completely over the cliff before the Unity gov't". Zimbabwe was NEVER going to fall; not in a thousand years would it have fallen. You know as much as I do that such kind of predictions or prophecies were made several times by the CIA and MI6 (remember stupid McGees utterances to this effect) who claimed and even had the audacity to give dates by which Zimbabwe was going to fall.
Nothing like that happened and/or was envisioned to happen and when sellout Tsvangi holed (literally squatting) himself in homo Khama's land, the President told him in his face that he had (to choose between remaining behind or getting into the non-stop Zim train) a few days and if he had not turned up to form the unity government we would have gone-it-alone.
The President, being a law abiding person and one who respects his peers, colleagues and SADC did not to go ahead and form an all-ZANU-PF government for that very reason and not the foolish notion that Zimbabwe was falling.
What was needed in Zimbabwe, which helped turn the tables on the sellout MDC-T, was to fight the enemy using his kind of weaponry. The weapon that the enemies of Zimbabwe (CIA and MI6 through Tsvangirai and his sellout MDC-T party) were using is the USD. The moment we introduced multi-currencies, the inflationary environment immediately went away. And this was well before the consummation of the Unity Government. Thus pressure was on the economy and no way else.
You will remember that Tsvangirai tried the banditry route (Democratic Resistance Committees (DRCs - MDC-T's banditry outfit) were trained in Botswana) but it came to nothing. Even with the help of gay Khama and Pandu Sikelemani who said openly, on BBC Hardtalk that their desert country was advocating for the sealing of all our borders for two weeks and then bomb us from the air, Tsvangirai's plans to destroy our economy dismally failed to materialize.
Before that Tsvangirai had called many work boycotts, strikes and demonstrations some of which were given names like "Final Push" but all this failed to result in Zimbabwe falling. After calling for the imposition of illegal, ruinous, evil, barbaric, diabolic, racist, satanic, devilish and inhuman sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe, it should have been a walk-over for the sellout but it became a mountain to climb.
Sellout Tsvangirai and his equally sellout part, with the help of their masters, totally failed to bring this country to its knees. That was why their frustration came out in the open at their rallies when the likes of Biti called Dr Gono "Al Qaeda No. 1 who deserves to be put before a firing squad". This was all frustration and anger - at not succeeding in having Zimbabwe fall - reaching boiling point.
Therefore, Zimbabwe was never going to fall, not in a thousand years will it have fallen!!! If you think this is not so just tell or advise them (MDC-T sellouts) to withdraw from the Unity Government now and see if Zimbabwe will fall. Not only that!!
Not even the situation before November 2008, when we introduced multi-currencies will return to Zimbabwe. Instead, Zimbabwe will progress rapidly without these sellouts that are blocking some of the progressive policies ZANU-PF wants to implement just to buy time for themselves and their masters.
They are dragging ZANU-PF to useless EU-Zimbabwe meetings just to buy time and formulate strategies as to how they can destroy our economy. But then, they are always a step behind because now we have been blessed with the highest concentration of diamonds the world has EVER seen and have been allowed to sell our precious stones through the KP - not that we would not have sold our sought-after stones without certification but that we always want to do things that are above board.
Besides we are taking-over foreign owned companies (51% share holding) and that will leave the economy in our hands and this will in turn ensure that no sabotage from imperialists will take place and see our country "falling over the cliff".
takunya_ndebvu, do you remember when Mugabe bankrupt the treasury to buy off the war veterans and put them on gov't payroll? That was the point where he pissed off the majority of the people and they turned against him. Now you have the gall to call them western puppets? After 20 years of doing next to nothing on land reform he instigates chaotic smash and grab takeovers of commercial farms. Do you think that the 600,000 now unemployed farm workers and their extended families believe that the CIA was behind that?
Shall I go on?
See All Comments