“It’s the view of the negotiators that the outstanding matters can be resolved by the principals,” Welshman Ncube, leader of the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC faction’s chief negotiator, told ZimOnline on Sunday. “So it is our recommendation that the outstanding issues be referred back to the principals.”
Mugabe, opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Mutambara signed an agreement on Monday to form a power-sharing government to tackle Zimbabwe’s long running political and economic crisis but failed on Wednesday to agree on how to share some key ministries.
The three leaders referred the matter to their negotiation teams who have also failed after three meetings to find a breakthrough, and throwing back the matter to their principals.
“No meetings are planned for tomorrow or this week,” Ncube said.
The principals can only meet after Mugabe returns from a United Nations summit in New York this week.
Mugabe signed the agreement with opposition leaders last week, relinquishing some powers for the first time in nearly three decades of rule under pressure from regional leaders and a growing economic crisis.
Under the deal brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, Mugabe retains his job as president but cedes some of his powers to Tsvangirai who takes the post of prime minister while Arthur Mutambara who heads the smaller faction of the MDC will come in as deputy prime minister.
The three leaders agreed to establish a 31-member Cabinet with ZANU PF getting15 posts, Tsvangirai’s MDC 13 and three for the Mutambara-led MDC.
The power-sharing deal was lauded as the first real opportunity in nearly 10 years for crisis-sapped Zimbabwe to begin work to end an economic crisis characterised by the world’s highest inflation of more than 11 million percent, skyrocketing unemployment and shortages of food and every basic survival commodity. – ZimOnline