Hours earlier, Mr Tsvangirai, the new Prime Minister, had blithely
dismissed Western alarm about his decision to enter the unity
Government with Mr Mugabe. You are too paranoid about Mugabe, he told
The Times in an exclusive interview.
Tonight, however, Western diplomats said that the day's events had
confirmed their worst fears. This is not power-sharing, it's a power
struggle, one said. Someone is saying, We're still boss. It's our
country. We don't have to make concessions'.
The drama began when Roy Bennett, a popular former MP in the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) who is due to become Deputy Agriculture
Minister, was seized after secret police stopped his charter aircraft
as it taxied at a small Harare airport.
Mr Bennett, 52, who was flying to Johannesburg to spend the weekend
with his wife, was bundled into a car and driven to a police station 25
miles away, followed by MDC security men.
Mr Bennett was later taken to the eastern city of Mutare where,
according to the MDC, he was charged with treason. These charges are
scandalous, vexatious and without basis in law, the MDC said in a
statement.
Police fired shots in the air to disperse hundreds of opposition
supporters who had gathered outside the police station where he was
being held.
Mr Bennett is a former coffee farmer whose land was seized in 2003. He
fled to South Africa in 2005 when the intelligence services tried to
arrest him over charges of plotting to assassinate Mr Mugabe.
He returned two weeks ago to endorse Mr Tsvangirai's decision to enter
a unity Government, and the secret police had been hunting him for the
past few days.
As Mr Bennett was being arrested, Mr Mugabe arrived at State House in
Harare to swear in the Cabinet, clutching a list of 21 Zanu (PF)
ministers  seven more than agreed by southern Africa leaders. Frantic
haggling ensued, with President Motlanthe of South Africa trying to
mediate.
There were reports of fistfights in the Zanu (PF) camp, with
politicians who have shamelessly enriched themselves in office refusing
to give up their posts. In the end, Zanu (PF) gained two ministers and
the MDC one, boosting the Cabinet from 31 to 34 members. The ceremony
started two hours late  but, somehow, 36 ministers were eventually
sworn in.
Almost all the new Zanu (PF) ministers are hardliners with records of
brutality and corruption, and no demonstrable interest in
reconciliation with a party that they sought ruthlessly to crush over
the past decade. Emmerson Mnangagwa, who helped to orchestrate the
slaughter of 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland in the 1980s, got the
defence portfolio; Sydney Sekeramayi, the former Defence Minister who
set the army on MDC activists during last year's elections, is in
charge of state security. Kembo Mohadi remains the Home Affairs
Minister in charge of the police  a force he has turned into an
instrument of repression.
In his interview, Mr Tsvangirai acknowledged residual resistance to
the new Government from Zanu (PF) hardliners and military chiefs but
insisted that there was a high degree of confidence building up
between himself and Mr Mugabe, and that Zimbabwe's new course was
irreversible.
He appealed to the three million educated Zimbabweans who have fled
their country to consider returning. It is the duty and responsibility
of every Zimbabwean to contribute to the rehabilitation and
reconstruction of the country, he said. This \ should inspire
Zimbabweans to come home.
Observers, however, saw the day's events as evidence that Zanu (PF) is
deeply divided over sharing power with the MDC. They believe that there
is a group of hardliners and generals within Mr Mugabe's party who are
doing their utmost to derail the unity Government. They saw the group's
hand in Mr Bennett's arrest and in the continued detention of 16
political activists held without charge for months.
At the same time, analysts believe that the debacle over ministerial
posts showed the eruption of hostilities within Zanu (PF) as the party
loses half its ministerial posts  and all the perks, privilege and
patronage that went with them. It's going to be huge, said one MDC
senator. You get hard currency at preferential rates, farms, luxury
cars . . . and there's a whole range of perks we don't know about.
Diplomats believe, increasingly, that Mr Mugabe is losing control of
his party. Mugabe is more and more out of this, said one. Zanu (PF)'s
infighting does not help Mr Tsvangirai as he tries to create a stable
government capable of tackling the hunger, disease and economic
collapse ravaging Zimbabwe. To do that, he told The Times, he needs
about $100 million a month from the West  money that is essential to
kick-start the emergency programme we have designed.
After today's pandemonium, Western officials said that their scepticism
had been amply vindicated. It's very hard to see any cause for
optimism, said one. This is not a unity Government . . . we're seeing
Zanu (PF) red in tooth and claw.