Since being announced to fanfare on Monday:
* Long-serving dictator President Robert Mugabe has reneged on an agreement that the parties share key ministries, and deadlocked the process by demanding all six of the top portfolios;
* Hardliners in Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party have refused to back the deal, arguing that it cedes too much ground to the Movement for Democratic Change; and
* International donors have refused to fork out much-needed emergency aid, despite an MDC delegation to Washington this week which appealed for the new government to be trusted.
And the deal has been thrown into even more jeopardy, with Mugabe  who cancelled and stalled a series of vital coalition meetings this week  jetting off to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. This has delayed talks for another week.
Daniel Shumba, president of Zimbabwe’s minority United People’s Party, told the Sunday Times : Mugabe has fooled everyone again. Officials within the European Union have told me this agreement is a non-event; they do not see it as power sharing. It is undemocratic, so it cannot last.
In terms of the deal, Mugabe remains president with overwhelming executive power, including the right to make war, declare martial law and dissolve parliament, while Tsvangirai becomes prime minister. Arthur Mutambara is one of Tsvangirai’s deputies.
Mugabe and Zanu-PF  which have already secured control of the departments of justice and defence  are now demanding responsibility for finance, foreign affairs, local government and home affairs, which includes the police.
Tsvangirai is understood to be insisting on control of at least two of these key portfolios.
Welshman Ncube, negotiator for the Mutambara faction of the MDC, confirmed on Friday that the talks had deadlocked over Zanu-PF’s demand for control of all of the key portfolios.
He said it had thus far been agreed that:
* Tsvangirai would control the second-tier portfolios of labour; health; transport; communications; economic development; science and technology; and constitutional development;
* Mugabe would be responsible for defence; justice and  most likely  agriculture; and
* Mutambara would be in charge of industry and international trade and education at school level.
The issue has now been referred to the negotiators.
But even more alarmingly for the MDC is Zanu-PF’s resistance to the deal itself. Hardliners are unhappy that they will have to report to Tsvangirai, their fiercest opponent in the recent controversial elections. More than half of the 64 Zanu-PF ministers, deputy ministers and provincial governors also stand to lose their positions under the agreement.
There is war in the party over this sell-out agreement. Hardly anybody, besides the president and his negotiators, supports the agreement with the MDC, said a senior Zanu-PF member. Why should we accept a deal that strips us of almost everything  posts, benefits and influence? We don’t want it. After all, Tsvangirai’s handlers in the West have already said they won’t support it.
Zanu-PF luminaries, including Mugabe’s deputies Joseph Msika and Joyce Mujuru, are also disgruntled about the deal, which sidelines them.
A second heated Zanu-PF meeting on Wednesday forced Mugabe to react publicly.
If you had won your seats in March we would not be facing this humiliation, he told party officials.
Also opposed are Zimbabwe’s powerful security chiefs.
The army commanders don’t want this agreement, a source said. Mugabe has problems on all fronts. He is now trying to manage it by refusing to give in to Tsvangirai’s demands for powerful ministries.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the new Zimbabwe coalition travelled to the US to convince state department officials that the new government could be trusted with funding and that emergency aid must be delivered because people are now literally starving.
But donors were said to be adopting an unenthusiastic wait and see attitude.
MDC negotiator Tendai Biti warned that on its own, even 5-billion in cash right now would achieve nothing  it all depends on Zanu, and said treason charges against him remained and will probably be used in an effort to blackmail me into going along with Zanu decisions.
But, despite the scepticism on all fronts, Ncube was optimistic a solution could be found. He insisted the deal was not in crisis, at least not yet.
But certainly, if I was in Mugabe’s position, I would not be going off to the UN when there is a priority of getting the country on its feet again; the problem now is this interruption, he said.
* Zimbabwe rivals to share power
Highlights Of the Agreement
* Executive power vests in the president, the prime minister and the president’s cabinet  which puts Mugabe fully in charge;
* Morgan Tsvangirai will be prime minister and leader of government business, charged with formulating policy, chairing a council of ministers and serving as Mugabe’s deputy in cabinet;
* Mugabe’s existing deputy presidents are the big losers  having their powers reduced to virtual ceremonial roles  while two new prime ministers, including MDC-faction leader Arthur Mutambara, will have executive functions;
* On the question of how to compensate white farmers kicked off their farms, the parties agreed that the primary obligation of compensating former landowners for land acquired rests on the former colonial power (Britain);
* Far from any amnesty agreement, the deal surprisingly takes a hard line on election violence, saying: The government shall apply the laws fully and impartially in bringing all perpetrators of politically motivated violence to book.;
* Despite repeated references to rights regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and political affiliation, there is no reference to sexual orientation in the 30-page document, suggesting no remedy to Mugabe’s anti-gay position;
* A new joint monitoring and implementation committee (Jomic) must urgently set up a national economic council; a land audit  to see who owns which farms, and which are productive; a mechanism for getting a massive foreign aid package via the African Union; a plan to attract and repatriate skilled Zimbabwean expatriates and exiles; and a select committee to complete a draft constitution.  The Times
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