Losers buy time in resolving GPA outstanding issues

According to information at hand, Zanu-PF negotiators Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche asked for the adjournment so that they could attend their partys congress which ended last Saturday. It also emerged Tuesday that negotiators representing the smaller MDC, Welshman Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, had also asked for an adjournment until December 18, citing government business outside the country.

This, therefore, meant that talks to iron out all outstanding issues as spelt out in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) could only resume on December 19 at the earliest. Tsvangirais MDC has reacted angrily to the adjournment and has accused its two partners, Zanu-PF and the splinter MDC party of scuttling efforts to resolve the outstanding issues.

According to the MDC official mouthpiece The Changing Times: The insistence by the SADC facilitation team that all outstanding issues be resolved before Christmas is now a long shot because of the unnecessary adjournments caused by both Zanu-PF and the MDC -M. Zanu-PF and the MDC -M are scuttling efforts to resolve all the issues and want to portray the adjournment as if it is a minor interruption.

No official comment could be obtained from Mutambaras MDC on the adjournment. The fragile unity government between the parties nearly collapsed last month when the Tsvangirais MDC boycotted government business, demanding the resolution of all outstanding issues as spelt out in the GPA.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has boycotted a trip to Copenhagen for a summit on Climate Change attended by President Mugabe, citing the fact that he wants to limit government expenditure on foreign trips as called for by finance minister Tendai Biti in his 2010 Budget.