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Zimbabwe: MDC Quits Unity Talks Over Deadlock


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Business Day (Johannesburg)

8 October 2008
Posted to the web 8 October 2008

Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg

ZIMBABWE's power-sharing deal is teetering on the brink of collapse after Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) negotiators walked out of a critical meeting with Zanu (PF) yesterday as a dispute over ministerial posts intensified.

Unless the mediator, former president Thabo Mbeki, intervenes to break the deadlock, talks over the allocation of 31 government ministries might soon be abandoned.

Three meetings involving President Robert Mugabe and main MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai have failed to resolve the issue.

The Southern African Development Community and the South African government have agreed that Mbeki can continue as mediator.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai met on Saturday for the third time, but deadlocked over the distribution of ministries, the allocation of which would have paved the way for the formation of a new government.

Under last month's power-sharing agreement, Mugabe is entitled to 15 ministries, Tsvangirai 13, and the leader of the smaller MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, three.

Mugabe is allowed eight deputy ministers, Tsvangirai six and Mutambara two. However, there is no agreement on which portfolios go to which party.

There is also a dispute over the sharing of the 10 posts of provincial governors now held by Zanu (PF).

Mugabe's party is also demanding revision of the agreement signed on September 15 to remove a clause which says if any of the parties lose an MP, they would not contest by-elections against each other.

MDC negotiators said they were "poles apart" from their Zanu (PF) counterparts and did want to "waste time talking".

MDC negotiator Tendai Biti confirmed the meeting broke down because "we were worlds apart". "Zanu (PF) came into the meeting with an arrogant and contemptuous attitude."

Biti said the allocation of all 31 ministries had not yet been resolved .

He said that in view of the "interminable deadlock", Mbeki needed to help resolve the issue.

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Zanu (PF) negotiator Patrick Chinamasa said the party did not see the need for Mbeki to intervene yet.


Read comments. Write your own.

Author: prem
Wed Oct 8 11:42:49 2008

Students, housewives and civil society groups must now get onboard the bandwagon of the movement for quality change and force lunatic Mugabe and cronies out of power!

The suffering people will not be able to wait any longer given the planting season may just go by without any government incentive to catch up with lost time. famine on a large scale is just by everybody's doorstep.

The hard headed lunatic Mugabe is behaving just as irresponsibly like dictators such as Mugabe, Bokassa, Taylor, Déby and co.

The MDCs badly need the people into the streets en masse to defy Mugabe's… [Read Full Text]

Author: maricho
Wed Oct 8 14:04:22 2008

Prem is right about Mugabe. Mugabe is an intelligent and blood thirsty dictator. But as a Zimbabwean myself, I think the call for people to go on the streets is not the best option to remove Mugabe from power simply because it can not work; it will not work; it did not work in the past when Tsvangirai himself called on the masses to revolt. Perhaps Prem is not aware that Tsvangirai called on Zimbabweans to go on the streets of Harare to remove Mugabe in June 2003. The majority of Harareans decided to stay at home.The few hundreds that… [Read Full Text]

Author: mabhiza
Thu Oct 9 10:12:49 2008

Well, well , Its interesting indeed that staunch MDC-T supporters like maricho have now accepted that their western sponsored outfit has no capacity of staging an uprising, and also the fact that it never had that capacity and it never will..the reason is simple, no sane zimbabwean has time to waste doing sponsored, unruly street forays that's only gonna fill the pockets of MDC-T leaders with dirty Western money..and plunge the same Zimbabweans more and more into misery..Morgan and his cohorts in MDC-T have been used as cannon fodders by outsiders in blasting their very own kith and kin by… [Read Full Text]

Author: Makasa
Thu Oct 9 22:19:27 2008

MBilhazia, your ignorance runs rampant on these pages again. When I read the rubbish you write it amuses me. The Zimbabwe people need to go back to the bushwar like it fought before,and believe me JOC the joke could not handle it ! They (JOC) would be begging Selousi scouts to come back and help them fight instead of berating them. Cut off the power to Mugabe and his scum by night , blow up the enterences to his homes, just the way it used to be, just to the ones who claimed to free us , they are… [Read Full Text]

Author: me!
Thu Oct 9 12:23:13 2008

well well whatever mabhiza - u forget MDC was formed in opposition to ZANU's continually ruinous and profligate regime in the first place neh! i'm going to ease the discomfort your comment has passed by admitting on your part that you're jes jesting!

Author: awt_independent
Tue Oct 14 17:24:04 2008

there goes Mr Kith and Kin again. What a wanker.

Author: awt_independent
Tue Oct 14 17:28:31 2008

Mabhiza is like a broken record. Every post of his is the same load of nonsense. Why dont you come up with something new. I get sick of telling you what bullsh!t you speak of. The MDC have their own minds, are independent of the west, even though they may represent some of their interests, those being human rights, democracy etc. The MDC also represents the voice of the people of Zimbabwe. Something Mugabe needs to listen too. He shouldnt be president. It only tells our children that if they lose, they just need to be a big ugly bully… [Read Full Text]

Author: kasikana
Fri Oct 31 16:32:28 2008

Mabhiza, I have no time for you because I think you dangerously resemble your father Mugabe. The situation in Zimbabwe is no longer political, it is now HUMANATARIAN. The MDC seems to be the only hope in sight. They might loot but they might share, unlike Zanu-pf. Wonder if you got anything yourself, it would be so sad if you are just one of us!

Author: me!
Wed Oct 8 14:31:39 2008

Thank you prem - nomore talks they need to revolt rather than queue for useless money and i am convinced the police and will join in coz a hungry mob is an angry mob and i doubt those ill-fed obsolete cops and soldiers have the strength to try control that and they will be out-numbered. problem is zimbos are so disempowered and disillusioned by now..........they should've had a militant opposition rather mesometimes thinks! kick Bob period!!!!


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