ecretary Generals Professor Welshman
Ncube
and Tendai Biti had been expected to sit at the negotiating table in
South
Africa with Zanu PF Ministers Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche.
South
Africa based political analyst Brian Raftopoulos said not much is
getting
out about the nature of the talks and it has been unclear as to why the
meeting was postponed. There has been a strict media blackout and the
political parties are keeping a tight lid on the discussions. This has
led
civic groups to insist on their inclusion in the talks. This has
resulted in
MDC and civic officials meeting in Pretoria this past week to discuss
how
they can inform each other about the talks and how the civic society
can
make an input. Meanwhile the MDC, which was severely weakened by a
split in
October 2005, has been holding discussions on the issue of unity and
election conditions. Sources said that last week the MDC held a
roundtable
meeting in South Africa, but that also hit a snag on the matter of
formalizing the issue of unity. Raftopoulos said the opposition is
going to
face many challenges ahead and there are going to be issues that civic
groups and opposition may disagree on. “There are huge problems ahead.
I
think Mugabe feels that he is going into these negotiations to appease
his
SADC colleagues but clearly it’s going to be very difficult to proceed
along
the issue of talks. I think at the moment the problem is alternatives
to
these talks are not clear. It’s not clear what either the opposition or
the
civics would do apart from the talks.”
Post published in: News