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Tsvangirai takes Zimbabwe power talks to the brink
Fiona Forde, The Independent (UK)
August 10, 2008

View this story on The Independent website

Morgan Tsvangirai threatened to walk away from the negotiating table in Harare yesterday as he demanded control of Zimbabwe's future government. Under a final deal crafted by a team of negotiators in South Africa in recent days, Robert Mugabe is set to remain as President, while Mr Tsvangirai will be appointed Prime Minister in a new coalition.

But there remain fears that a final agreement is a long way off, since both men are still claiming to be Zimbabwe's legitimate leader, and the distribution of executive powers under the suggested coalition has yet to be properly discussed.

"With Mugabe holding 100 per cent of the executive power as it stands, it now has to be decided what percentage of powers Tsvangirai will get," a member of the talks has told The Independent on Sunday.

The 84-year-old President is unlikely to cede majority control, least of all to his 56-year-old union-backed rival, Mr Tsvangirai. The spokesman for Mr Mugabe, George Charamba, described the very suggestion of such a handover of power as a "falsehood".

Others point to the bloody campaign of late June, which ensured Mr Mugabe's victory in the disputed one-man presidential run-off. "He didn't kill more than 300 people and terrorise the nation only to give it away for nothing to this man after two weeks of talks," said one unnamed Harare-based commentator.

But while Mr Tsvangirai has suggested that he could work with members of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, he does not want to share power with Mr Mugabe.

Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change group has warned that its leader "will walk away, with the mandate of his party, if he is offered anything short of 'full executive power'". Should he take such a decision, Mr Mugabe is likely to immediately form a government without him, and thus banish Mr Tsvangirai to the political wilderness for the next five years.

However, if Mr Tsvangirai enters Mr Mugabe's government as a junior partner, he makes things difficult for the international donor community, which has said on repeated occasions that it will fund only a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe. With the donor community his trump card - international aid is critical to the bankrupt country - Mr Tsvangirai could choose to sit tight and let the talks stall, rather than break off or see his party subsumed in government. Even then, Mr Mugabe could still insist on the need to form an administration, given that Zimbabwe has been without one for more than five months.

Talks had already broken down once before they resumed last Sunday. The MDC has negotiated for a 30-month transitional government, but Zanu-PF wants it to run for the full five-year term.

"Does it make sense to insist you will only agree to marriage if the certificate includes the date of eventual divorce?" Mr Charamba wrote in yesterday's edition of The Herald.

The parties are also divided on the size of the future coalition, with the MDC pushing for 22 ministries while Zanu-PF demands 38. The talks began on Friday when the South African President, Thabo Mbeki - the official mediator between the two sides - flew to Harare and began a round of talks with each of the party leaders before their joint session, which was scheduled for last night.

Mr Mbeki is under pressure to show results before he hosts a Southern African Development Community summit later this month. The SADC appointed him to find a solution to a crisis that is undermining regional security. Zimbabwe's economic meltdown has added urgency to the search for a settlement. On Friday, Western nations urged the lifting of restrictions on the activities of aid agencies in Zimbabwe imposed on 4 June after the government accused them of favouring opposition supporters in the distribution of food aid.

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