It was not immediately clear last night whether Mbeki, who had been expected in Harare much earlier but only arrived around 2123hrs, was to straight away begin consultations with President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara or he would wait till Tuesday morning.
Some government officials told ZimOnline that the former president would only begin seeing Zimbabwe’s squabbling “political leaders today after his late arrival”.
Mbeki’s visit comes as the power-sharing deal looks increasingly in danger of failing after Mugabe at the weekend unilaterally allocated the key ministries of defence, home and foreign affairs, information, local government and provisionally finance to his ruling ZANU PF before conclusion of negotiations with the opposition MDC party.
Mugabe – who has not made secret his contempt for the power-sharing deal that he has labelled a “humiliation” – also swore in his two vice-presidents earlier on Monday, ahead of the arrival of Mbeki in Harare.
Main MDC leader Tsvangirai threatened on Sunday to walk away from the power-sharing deal if Mugabe stuck to his decision to allocate key Cabinet posts to his ruling ZANU PF party. The MDC says fresh elections should be called if the power-sharing deal flops.
The opposition party’s spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said Mbeki’s visit provided “a platform and opportunity for ZANU PF to reverse its unilateral action”. He however doubted Mugabe’s party that has ruled Zimbabwe since its 1980 independence from Britain was ready for compromise.
The power-sharing agreement is seen as offering the best chance for Zimbabwe in more than a decade to begin on a new road to recovery after suffering an unprecedented recession marked by the world’s highest inflation rate of 231 million percent and acute shortages of food and every basic survival commodity.
Under the agreement Mugabe will remain president while Tsvangirai becomes prime minister and Mutambara deputy prime minister. The agreement allots 15 Cabinet posts to ZANU PF, 13 to the Tsvangirai-led MDC and three to Mutambara’s faction.
However it is silent about who gets which specific posts and the rival parties have since the signing of the agreement wrangled over who should control the important ministries of home affairs, finance, local government, foreign affairs.
The European Union (EU) said earlier on Monday it could impose fresh sanctions against Mugabe’s government if the Zimbabwean leader pushed ahead to unilaterally form a new government in defiance of the power-sharing agreement.
In a joint statement, EU foreign ministers slammed Mugabe for “the unilateral decision to form a new government which has not been agreed by all parties,” adding that the world’s most powerful trading bloc was “ready to consider additional measures” against Zimbabwe’s government.
The EU, United States and other Western nations have since 2002 maintained sanctions against Mugabe’s government as punishment for his controversial seizure of white farmland for redistribution to landless blacks, failure to uphold the rule of law, human rights and democracy.
But the EU said last month that it was putting on hold any decision about whether to renew sanctions or add fresh ones against Mugabe’s administration in order to first assess implementation of the power-sharing agreement.
The EU has also said it is ready to help rebuild Zimbabwe’s battered economy provided a power-sharing government implements necessary political and economic reforms. – ZimOnline.