Zimbabwe: Talks to Resume Soon, Says Mbeki

29 July 2008
allAfrica.com

Zimbabwe's power-sharing talks have adjourned while negotiators consult with their party leaders, but will resume by the end of the week, South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki said in Pretoria on Tuesday.

He was speaking in the wake of reports saying the talks had deadlocked.

Addressing a news conference with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Mbeki said the Zimbabwean negotiators – who are meeting at a secret venue in South Africa – “want to go back to Harare to… consult with their principals.”

A transcript of Mbeki’s remarks was released by South Africa’s foreign ministry. Mubarak was in South Africa on a state visit.

A media blackout has been imposed on the talks, but party sources have suggested to journalists that President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party has offered the Movement for Democratic Change’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, the post of third vice-president, alongside the existing Zanu-PF vice-presidents, Joyce Mujuru and Joseph Msika. The MDC reportedly wants Tsvangirai to assume the post of prime minister with considerable executive power.

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