President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister-designate Arthur Mutambara could not meet yesterday apparently because Mugabe was busy attending a meeting of the politburo of his ZANU PF party.
“The meeting failed to take place today because ZANU PF had its politburo meeting today. We are all waiting for that process to be finalised before we can start to move on,” said Nelson Chamisa, who is spokesman for the Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
However Chamisa said there were already “sticking points” regarding allocation of ministries with, for example, both MDC-Tsvangirai and ZANU PF vying to get the key ministries of defence and information.
He said: “What I can tell you is that we already have some sticking points coming out of the allocation of Cabinet posts. We had wanted the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Information but ZANU PF has also made it clear that they also want those ministries. But definitely some compromise has to be reached for the benefit of the people of Zimbabwe.”
Previous reports had suggested that the MDC was only interested in the Ministry of Home Affairs in charge of the police and was agreeable to ZANU PF controlling the defence department and the army.
Mugabe and his younger rivals signed an agreement on Monday to form a power-sharing government that that will work to extricate Zimbabwe from an economic crisis marked by the world’s highest inflation of more than 11 million percent, chronic shortages of food and every basic survival commodity.
According to the agreement ZANU PF will get 15 ministries, the Tsvangirai-led MDC 13, Mutambara’s faction of the MDC will get the remaining three out of the proposed 31 ministries.
Analysts say the power-sharing agreement is fragile given deep-seated animosity among the signatories, adding that three political rivals will have to work closely to win the confidence of the international community particularly Western governments whose financial support will be vital to any effort to revive Zimbabwe’s collapsed economy.
The power-sharing deal was reached after protracted talks mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki. The deal, signed in the presence of African leaders and dignitaries, gives Zimbabwe its first real opportunity in nearly 10 years for a new beginning of national healing and economic recovery. – ZimOnline