(TALKZIMBABWE) Mugabe and Mutambara seal deal
Mugabe and Mutambara seal dealRanganai Chidemo
Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:54:00 +0000
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and the leader of the one of the formations of the Movement for Democratic Change, Arthur Mutambara yesterday sealed a deal paving the way for the formation of a new all-inclusive government.
The leader of the main formation of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, walked out of the talks, but his party members say he is also expected to sign the deal before cabinet is appointed.
Tsvangirai will sign the agreement after a ‘cooling off’ period, according to sources that were party to the talks. He is currently in final talks with the executive of his party on the agreements made with President Mugabe and Professor Mutambara.
Ruling party insiders told the Zimbabwe Guardian that Tsvangirai has been changing positions during the discussions reversing decisions already made in South Africa when party negotiators met for three weeks. Tsvangirai was “frustrating the negotiators during the three day sessions by his dilly-dallying,” says a ruling party official.
“He (Morgan) has too many principals and too many interests to represent and his shifting positions reflect that he is not his own man,” added our insider source.
“Tsvangirai was holding the negotiators at ransom by making demands that did not represent the interests of Zimbabweans. We had to move on and make sure that no one person had the right to stop the country from making progress.”
“This has been typical of the MDC-T leader from day one and has frustrated even his own party members on at least two occasions during this latest round of negotiations,” said our source who is from the ministry of information and publicity.
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is expected to issue a statement this morning to brief the nation on what transpired and the way forward before he leaves for Angola. He is expected to brief Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, the chair of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security on the progress of the talks.
Tsvangirai is said to have shifted positions each time the negotiators met, forcing them to draft and redraft position papers and append signatures.
According to our source: “This frustrated negotiators who felt there was no progress being made and demonstrated that he was not his own man. An invisible hand was definitely at play somewhere, remote controlling him.”
Tsvangirai is reported to have been “jittery” about original agreements on the Land Question, a position already agreed on by negotiators in South Africa two weeks ago.
Tsvangirai is said to have shifted positions on the recognition of President Mugabe’s victory on June 27, a position which had already been agreed upon when the main parties met in South Africa after signing a Memorandum of Understanding paving the way for the talks.
“This is a position advocated by the West and it was clear that Tsvangirai was definitely talking to someone who was urging him to push for this position, a position he originally agreed was non-negotiable.”
“He also wanted full executive powers,” a position said to have come as a surprise to his own negotiators. “We had to adjourn the talks several times as the MDC-T negotiators met in the lobby to discuss the new positions.”
A source told The Herald, “It seemed that reason would prevail for the sake of progress, but at the last minute Tsvangirai declined to sign. That is why you saw (Tendai) Biti saying afterwards that he was confident the negotiations would continue.
”The fear is that Tsvangirai might take too long to sign the agreement, in which case the other two parties will simply go ahead and form the next Government.”
Leaving the Rainbow Towers Hotel on Tuesday, Biti said the talks were “still alive” and “have not collapsed”. He added: "We are taking time out (break) and we will return later." Biti added, “There’s nothing that cannot be overcome.”
Morgan Tsvangirai left the venue of the talks before any of the leaders and was described by one news agency as “stony faced”.
President Mugabe is now expected to announce his cabinet which will include the MDC Mutambara formation, but said he is still open to negotiations with the MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, MDC, MUGABE, ZANU-PF
posted by MrK @ 9:43 AM
1 Comments:
The war hero wins again. :)
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