Zimbabwe opens new chapter

  1. Posted on Friday 12 September 2008 - 08:27
    Mugadza
    Munyaradzi Mugadza, AfricaNews in Harare, Zimbabwe
    Zimbabweans are celebrating a major breakthrough ever in their political history as a power-sharing deal was reached on Thursday, just when the US were remembering September 11, 2001. Zimbabwe's political rivals would seal the deal on Monday to end the turmoil.
    mugabe_tsvangirai_send_by_mugadza
    Announcing the much-waited outcome of the talks, South African President Thabo Mbeki, who was in Harare since Monday said a pact had been reached at last. “An agreement has been reached on all items on the agenda and all of them endorsed the document,” he said as he emerged from the hotel.

    He added: “We never paid any attention to criticism about quiet diplomacy. All diplomacy is quiet, if it isn’t quiet, it’s not diplomacy, and it’s something else.” Mbeki also said the details of the deal would be made available to the public on Monday when all the three principals will sign the deal in front of regional and continental leaders.

    But insiders said under the new deal, the sitting president, Robert Mugabe will remain as head of state and government while chairing a cabinet of 31 ministers. Tsvangirai will preside over a council of ministers, supervises ministers, formulates and implements policies, sits in National Security Council and heads government business in Parliament.

    The ruling Zanu PF party that lost the parliamentary majority to opposition MDC will also have a total of 15 ministers and 80 deputy ministers, while Tsvangirai will command 13 ministers and six deputy ministers. The leader of the breakaway MDC party Arthur Mutambara faction will have three ministers and one deputy minister.

    All the three parties however agreed that a new constitution come after 18 months. Although Tsvangirai said he was relieved to have a deal, he was distressed because the life span of the inclusive government remained five years contradictory to two years he had called for.

    Mugabe and his rival had failed to agree in the negotiations over how to share power, with the opposition leader warning he would prefer no deal than sign a bad deal over the past weeks.

    The brokered dialogue between the three political parties started after Mugabe won a discredited one man presidential election run-off after Tsvangirai pulled out because of increased violence against his supporters. The negotiations went on for two months and Zimbabwe has been in political and economic crisis since 2000.

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