Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Parties near Gono, Tomana deal: Ncube

Parties near Gono, Tomana deal: Ncube
by
04/03/2010 00:00:00

THE three parties in Zimbabwe's power sharing government are on the verge of resolving outstanding issues in their power-sharing deal, according to Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube.

The three parties — Zanu PF, led by President Robert Mugabe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and a rival MDC led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara — signed the Global Political Agreement in September 2008 and formed a coalition government last year.

A number of sticking issues, however, emerged which the parties have been grappling with since last year but Ncube told business leaders on Wednesday that virtually all the issues — except two major ones — had been resolved.

“We are on the verge of resolving virtually all of them except the difficult ones, mainly the two appointments," he said, referring to the appointment of central bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana which the MDC views as irregular.

“One appointment has been resolved but one of those two appointments remains contentious. We have not been able to find each other yet and we are still talking,” said Ncube, who is also one of the negotiators for the Mutambara-led MDC.

Ncube, who said he was not at liberty to disclose which of the two appointments remained unresolved, did say that the swearing in of Tsvangirai's pick for Deputy Agriculture Minister, Roy Bennett, was on the verge of being finalised.

Bennett is currently in court on charges of possession of firearms, a charge which Zanu PF felt should be finalised before he is sworn in. Ncube said the issue would be resolved in the next meetings of the party negotiators.

He said the parties had also agreed on an implementation plan to be announced as soon as all the issues had been resolved.

Although reports indicated that the list of outstanding issues had grown to 27, some of the top ones also included the issue of sanctions, pirate radio stations and the alleged parallel government, which were raised by Zanu PF. — New Ziana

Labels: GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT, NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT

posted by MrK @ 9:25 PM