But president Motlanthe of South Africa, who chairs the SADC, maintains that the ZIMBABWE'S rival political parties have finally agreed to form a government of national unity, which is expected to be in place by February 13.
Motlanthe said the power-sharing talks that ended on Tuesday morning around 5:30am, reached a successful conclusion that will lead to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai being sworn-in as prime minster together with his deputies on February 11, two days before ministers take their oaths of office.
However, MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa, told CAJ News that his party was not impressed by the SADC outcome saying the deliberations failed to resolve MDC’s five burning concerns.
"We came to this summit with five outstanding issues which are: the Enactment of Constitutional Amendment Number 19, the definition of National Security Council legislation, Equitable allocation of portfolio ministries, the appointment of Provincial Governors and other senior positions and the Breaches of the MOU and the GPA
"It was our expectation that the SADC processes would be above board and be beyond reproach. Regrettably once again we note that Mr. Mugabe was allowed to sit in during the closed session of the plenary meetings. Thus once again Mr. Mugabe has been unfairly allowed to be a judge in his own cause.
"As far as the merits are concerned, our expectations were again that SADC would come up with a just resolution to the outstanding issues in the interest of Zimbabwe and all the parties concerned. Quite clearly the conclusions reached as reflected in the communiqué fall far short of our expectations. Most importantly they do not accord with our National Council resolutions of the 14th of November
2008 and 12th of December 2008," said Chamisa in a statement.
He said it was important that finality be brought to the Zimbabwe power sharing deal issue and therefore the MDC National Council would meet on Friday .
"If the deal is to be embraced by all parties, then it is super. But as far as I am concerned this deal is subject to MDC confirming it, otherwise we would welcome a political settlement in Zimbabwe.
"There is no one who is a winner or a loser because neither the MDC nor Z anu (PF ) can go it alone. Again, I would like to appeal to SADC to give the new government of national unity a chance and keep monitoring and supporting it until the next elections," said Zunga . –CAJ News