(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC plans GPA showdown with Zanu PF

MDC plans GPA showdown with Zanu PF
by
03/01/2010 00:00:00

THE bickering between Zanu PF and the MDC is set to continue in the new-year with one of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s key advisers threatening a “sharp escalation” in the dispute over full implementation of the GPA.

While a collegial press conference jointly addressed by President Robert Mugabe and his rivals in December suggested relations within the coalition government were improving, Eddie Cross, the MDC’s policy coordinator says his party will trigger another showdown with Zanu PF just days into the New Year.

"I think as soon as the government is back in the New Year … the crisis will escalate sharply unless (South African President) Mr Jacob Zuma steps up to the plate and does what (former South African Prime Minister John) Vorster did to (Rhodesian leader) Ian Smith in 1976 and what Mr (Thabo) Mbeki did to Mr (Robert) Mugabe in 2007.

"Mr Zuma has to say to Mr Mugabe behind closed doors, as Vorster said to Smith: 'It's the end of the road.

"… The political, social and economic crisis is re-emerging in Zimbabwe. We will slide into a condition very quickly in the new year, where the new government will become totally dysfunctional,” Cross who is also the Member of Parliament for Bulawayo South told South African media.

As haggling over implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) came to a head last year, Tsvangirai’s party temporarily boycotted the unity administration in October accusing President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party of being “unreliable and dishonest” partners.

Zanu PF responded by threatening to appoint acting Ministers to supervise portfolios abandoned by the MDC officials forcing the regional SADC grouping to intervene and facilitate further dialogue between the feuding parties.

Subsequent talks yielded an agreement over the composition of statutory bodies to oversee elections, the media and human rights but little progress on the more substantive issues still dividing the parties.

Cross says the parties held almost continuous talks throughout the holiday season with no sign of a breakthrough.

"We are back where we were in April 2008. South Africa is confronted with a situation where Zanu PF is unprepared to accept the outcome of a political process which has been initiated and managed by the South African government. The question now is: What do we do?"

"(The MDC is) not prepared to make further concessions with regard to the fundamental principles enunciated in the (GPA) agreement - we're not prepared to do so," Cross said.

Tsvangirai’s party complains that its officials continue to be harassed by state security agents and, further, wants President Mugabe to reverse the appointments of the governor of the country’s central bank and the attorney general, claiming they were not made in the ‘spirit’ of the GPA.

In addition the MDC says it also wants a more “equitable” distribution of governorships and other senior positions in the inclusive administration.

For its part, Zanu PF insists it has fulfilled its obligations under the GPA and will not be making any further concessions to the opposition.

Again, President Mugabe’s party accuses the MDC of not doing enough to have sanctions imposed by Western countries removed.

Additional reporting by The Sunday Times (SA)