London-based Africa Confidential said both Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube, who head the MDC-T and MDC-N, have confirmed ongoing secret talks with Zanu (PF) officials in separate interviews.
“Neither Tsvangirai nor Ncube would be drawn on the details of such a deal but both told Africa Confidential that there were serious talks about ‘transitional arrangements’,” the think-tank said.
These are believed to involve ridding the post-Mugabe government of partisan bureaucrats and a governance system beholden to the security forces.
Zimbabwe's military has taken day-to-day control of key elements of the government, limiting the authority of Mugabe as he struggles to maintain power after 31 years.
Mugabe's clout has diminished as the military supremos have deployed forces widely across the country and in government agencies – including the electoral commission, many parastatals and government ministries.
National decision-making has been consolidated within the Joint Operations Command, a shadowy group consisting of the leaders of the army, air force, police, intelligence agency and prison service – the "securocrats."
Zanu (PF) insiders say that even Vice President Joice Mujuru and Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa have been having clandestine meetings with Tsvangirai and other senior MDC-T figures about how to handle post-Mugabe politics.
Mujuru and Mnangagwa lead the two factions believed to be jostling to succeed Mugabe. Neither man relishes the prospect of inheriting a country with a crippled economy, diplomatically isolated from its neighbours and beholden to the military.
A deal with the MDC factions would be anathema to the securocrats, so the generals are now believed to be promoting a third Zanu (PF) faction led by Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantine Chiwenga as a serious candidate to succeed Mugabe.
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