(NEWZIMBABWE) Tsvangirai should be flexible- Zuma

Tsvangirai should be flexible- Zuma
by
16/01/2010 00:00:00

SOUTH African President, Jacob Zuma says Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai needs to be more flexible with his demands to ensure progress in ongoing talks aimed at saving Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government.

Tsvangirai’s MDC party is demanding the removal from office of central bank governor, Dr Gideon Gono and the attorney general, Johannes Tomana claiming their appointments were against the “letter and spirit” of the power sharing deal signed with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.

Zanu PF however, refuses to budge insisting the appointments were constitutional and, further, accuses the MDC of failing work for the removal of sanctions imposed by western countries.

This and a host of other so-called “outstanding issues” continue to divide the inclusive government casting a dark shadow over the country’s fledgling political stability and economic recovery.

But in a sign of growing regional impatience with the political bickering in Harare, President Zuma called on Tsvangirai to show some flexibility.

“(Are these issues (Gono and Tomana) so fundamental that we cannot move without resolving them? Can we park them and proceed?” Zuma said in an interview with a South African radio station.

He said he was however, “positive and hopeful” that there would be progress in the ongoing talks between the two MDC factions and Zanu PF.

“I’m sure the Zimbabweans have to open up and look at the issues from all angles,” he said.

MDC-T negotiator and cabinet minister, Elton Mangoma also emphasised that the coalition government would not collapse.

“The MDC isn’t going to pull out of this government or the talks.
“It’d be naive to say we don’t expect disagreements, but I don’t think there’s anything that can’t be negotiated or reconciled,” Mangoma said.

Talks between the coalition partners were set to resume over the weekend.