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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Talks, dialogue, negotiations and GNU - Post June 2008 "elections" - Index of articles
MDC negotiators leave
for South Africa
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC)
November
25, 2008
The MDC negotiators led
by Secretary-General, Tendai Biti, yesterday left for South Africa
for the resumption of the stalled inter-party dialogue between the
three major political formations in the country.
The MDC has left for
the talks to take further its compelling case following the national
council's rejection of the SADC recommendations of 9 November 2008,
which skirted the major sticking issues that have scuttled the negotiations.
The negotiators will
raise issues regarding the facilitation, Zanu PF's lack of sincerity
in the dialogue as well as the reductionist tendency to reduce and
narrow down the sticking issues to the ministry of Home Affairs,
and lately to Constitutional Amendment Number 19.
The MDC national
council met on Friday, 14 November 2008 and rejected the SADC resolution
which sought to reduce the sticking points only to the Ministry
of Home Affairs. The MDC notes that Zanu PF initially said the only
sticking issue was the Ministry of Finance, and then changed it
to Home Affairs and now to Constitutional Amendment Number 19.
The national
council, the MDC's supreme-decision making body, resolved that the
party will not join the inclusive government until all the sticking
issues are addressed. The sticking issues include the equitable
distribution of ministerial portfolios, the composition and powers
of the National Security Council, the outstanding issue of the provincial
governors, the appointment of Permanent Secretaries and ambassadors,
the correction of Zanu PF's fraudulent alteration of the Global
Political Agreement
of 15 September 2008 and the enactment of Constitutional Amendment
Number 19.
The MDC notes with concern
Zanu PF's intransigence and its continued lack of sincerity which
have stood in the doorway of an amicable political settlement; a
settlement which does not reduce the MDC to a junior partner when
it is the MDC which won credible elections on 29 March.
There is a further threat
to the talks. Despite undertaking to respect citizens' rights as
enshrined in the Global Political Agreement signed by the political
principals in Harare on 15 September 2008, 14 MDC activists from
Banket, including a two-year old c in Mashonaland West province
are missing after they were abducted from their homes in pre-dawn
raids a month ago.
The State is in contempt
of court after it failed to bring the activists to court despite
a High Court order to that effect.
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