A confident MDC chief negotiator Tendai Biti told reporters at the close of a second round of talks on Wednesday that with hard prayers overnight, agreement could be reached when the talks mediated by ex-South African President Thabo Mbeki resume on Thursday.
Asked by reporters when talks could be concluded Biti said: History is being made, mountains are being moved and things are happening. If we pray hard tonight something will happen tomorrow.
Tsvangirai, appearing more confident than he has looked since the talks began on Tuesday, told reporters as he left the talks venue; “The proceedings have been going . . . we are continuing tomorrow, because there are some matters still outstanding.”
Arthur Mutambara, who heads a breakaway faction of the MDC, said the three parties had had a long and productive day, adding: We are very close (to a deal).
Mbeki returned to Harare on Monday on an urgent mission to salvage a historic power-sharing deal that he brokered nearly a month ago between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara.
The deal had looked in danger of failing after Mugabe last 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 MDC.
Tsvangirai reacted to the move by threatening to quit the deal if Mugabe stuck to his decision to take all the key ministries. The opposition leader said fresh elections would have to be called if the power-sharing deal collapses.
Mugabe told reporters as he left the Harare Rainbow Towers hotel, venue of the talks, that negotiating parties had made progress in resolving their differences and would finish talks on Thursday. We made some progress. We finish tomorrow (Thursday), he said.
Under the September 15 power-sharing 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 the pact 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.
Analysts have criticised Zimbabwe’s leaders for bickering over Cabinet positions, while the country was plunging deeper into economic crisis as shown when the government’s Central Statistical Office released new figures last week showing annual inflation had jumped to 231 million percent in the month of July, the highest such rate in the world.
In addition to hyperinflation, Zimbabweans also have to also grapple with acute shortages of every basic survival commodity and eight in 10 people are out of employment. Shortages of water and electricity are common, burst sewers flow unchecked in the country’s cities while roads are littered with potholes. – ZimOnline
Post published in: News