We are continuing tomorrow, we have not finished, Mugabe told reporters as he left the Harare Rainbow Towers hotel where negotiations were taking place.
The leaders of the two opposition Movement for Deomcratic Change (MDC) formations Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara confirmed the negotiations that are being facilitated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki would resume Wednesday morning.
There was no conclusion to discussions. We will continue tomorrow at 10:30 am, said Tsvangirai, who has threatened to walk away from the September 15 power-sharing agreement if Mugabe sticks to his decision to allocate key government ministries to his ruling ZANU PF party.
Mutambara said: We have had a very productive day but our discussions will continue tomorrow.
Mbeki returned to Harare on Monday night on an urgent mission to salvage a historic power-sharing deal that he brokered nearly a month ago between Mugabe and MDC leaders Tsvangirai and Mutambara.
The deal has 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.
Main MDC leader Tsvangirai told supporters last Sunday that he would quit the deal if the new efforts by Mbeki to end the impasse over Cabinet ministries did not yield positive results. Tsvangirai said fresh elections would have to be called if the power-sharing deal collapsed.
But one of Mbeki’s aides told the media earlier on Tuesday that the former South African President was confident he would be able to rescue the September 15 power-sharing deal. “We are convinced that we should be able in the end, no matter how long it takes, to reach a conclusion,” the aide said.
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.
As Zimbabwe’s leaders bicker over Cabinet positions, an economic crisis gripping the southern African country continues to worsen as highlighted by the latest inflation figures released by the government’s Central Statistical Office last week showing annual inflation rocketing to 231 million percent in the month of July, the highest such rate in the world.
In addition to hyperinflation, Zimbabweans also have to 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