It should come as no surprise that the Zimbabwean negotiations have hit a snag, writes S’Thembiso Msomi in The Times, Johannesburg, on Wednesday.
Such is the nature of the fierce conflict between Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC that it would have been a miracle for the talks to proceed without hiccups and be concluded within the two-week deadline.
It is difficult to know exactly what has caused the current impasse because the parties are forbidden, in terms of the memorandum of understanding they signed last week, from commenting publicly on the talks.
But the sticking point, according to sources close to the process, appears to be the Zimbabwean presidency.
Mugabe, who insists that the results of his sham presidential run-off election must be recognised, is prepared to offer Tsvangirai only the largely ceremonial post of third vice-president (the other two being Zanu-PF appointees).
Tsvangirai will have none of it and demands that he be given the top job because he won most votes in the March 29 election. He boycotted the June 27 run-off because of state-sponsored violence against his supporters.
As things stand, the two parties seem poles apart and President Thabo Mbeki, who facilitates the talks, and his team have their work cut out trying to find a workable solution.
But the situation is not insurmountable and the parties could be talking to each other again in Pretoria in no time.
One of Mbeki’s uncelebrated recent achievements was his success in convincing Mugabe not to appoint a new cabinet before the talks were concluded.
To his credit, Mugabe has kept his end of the bargain and resisted the temptation to follow in the footsteps of Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki, who showed utter disdain for the unity talks in his own country when he appointed half the cabinet while talks with his rival, Raila Odinga, were continuing.
Mugabe’s hand might also have been forced by the fact that, constitutionally, he could not appoint the new cabinet before the Zimbabwean parliament was sworn in.
Be that as it may, he is playing by the rules and that, on its own, is a major achievement.
As for Tsvangirai, he has demonstrated his commitment to the talks by withdrawing some of the preconditions he set down earlier. These include his demand for an African Union envoy to assist Mbeki in the talks and for political prisoners to be released before the start of the negotiations.
The compromises made by the two leaders gave hope to the world, but especially to the long-suffering Zimbabwean population, that the parties have finally realised they have no other option but to talk to each other.
The current deadlock should not be allowed to degenerate into a permanent breakdown in the mediation process.
As for the rest of the world, the best we can do now to assist Zimbabweans in their journey towards national unity and economic recovery is to wait patiently. They will work out a deal.
They have no option.
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