ZANU PF chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa said the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC party should join the unity government first because the demands the opposition was making were best handled by an all-inclusive government.Â
Our position is that we will not meet any new demands made by the MDC, Chinamasa told journalists in Harare.
The MDC wants ZANU PF to give up control of the Home Affairs ministry that analysts say have played a critical role in ensuring Mugabe's stranglehold on power.
The opposition wants other key government posts, including provincial governors, permanent secretaries, ambassadors, the governor of the country's central bank and the attorney general, shared equitably among parties participating in the unity government.
The MDC has also said its activists and human rights campaigners being held in jail on what the opposition says are trumped-up charges of plotting to overthrow Mugabe should be released before it can agree to join the unity government.
Talks chaired by South African President and chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Kgalema Motlanthe in Harare this week failed to break the impasse between MDC and ZANU PF over implementation of the power-sharing agreement the parties signed last September.
SADC leaders hold an extraordinary summit in South Africa next Monday to try to pressure the Zimbabwean rivals to form a unity government, a near impossible task given the entrenched positions of both ZANU PF and MDC.
Chinamasa said all appointments made by Mugabe could not be rescinded to accommodate the MDC but said the veteran President was ready to accommodate the opposition when making future appointments in the event of vacancies occurring.
There is no way we can terminate (appointments) . . . but if a vacancy occurs in an all-inclusive government it is natural that the President consults over new appointments, he said.
The MDC wants to be allocated the governorships of Manicaland, Masvingo, Bulawayo, Harare and Matabeleland North provinces where the opposition won the most votes.
A breakaway faction of the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara should get the governorship of Matabeleland South while ZANU PF should appoint governors in the remaining four provinces, according to Tsvangirai and his party.
Chinamasa said ZANU PF was hopeful next week's meeting will bring to finality the search for a unity government in Zimbabwe.Â
We hope the SADC meeting set for Monday brings the matter to its finality in terms of the way forward, Chinamasa said. The Zimbabwe issue is SADC's responsibility and that is why we have abided by all regional rulings on the country.
But he emphasised that ZANU PF will not agree to reopen discussions on the allocation of Cabinet posts as demanded by the MDC. Mugabe's party will not discuss permanent secretary's posts because these were civil service positions handled by the Public Service Commission and not political parties.
Chinamasa said ZANU PF will also reject demands that MDC and civic rights activists jailed on charges of treason be freed because these were matters before courts of law.
However ZANU PF was willing to open negotiations with the MDC over demands by the opposition party that the composition and functions of a new national security council be determined before a unity government is formed. But Chinamasa said negotiations on the council should be without preconditions.
Zimbabweans had hoped a power-sharing government would help ease the political situation and allow the country to focus on ending an economic and humanitarian crisis that is seen in acute food shortages, hyperinflation and deepening poverty, amid a cholera epidemic that has killed close to 3 000 people since last August. – ZimOnline.