Breakthrough deal for Zimbabwe
Bathandwa Mbola
12 September 2008
Zimbabwe's political impasse was finally broken on Thursday when Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), under the mediation of South African President Thabo Mbeki, agreed to set up a government of national unity.
Mbeki announced the breakthrough power-sharing deal in Harare late on Thursday night. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) appointed mediator has spent months working to resolve a crisis that has been escalating since Zimbabweans went to the polls five months ago.
Mbeki said Zanu-PF and the MDC had reached a "unanimous agreement, arrived at without any reservations" on all issues, and would announce a national unity government under the aegis of the SADC in Harare on Monday.
"We have concluded the negotiations that the three political parties represented in the Zimbabwe Parliament [Zanu-PF, the MDC and a breakaway MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara] have been engaged in for some time since last year," Mbeki told a media conference at the conclusion of the marathon talks.
"An agreement has been reached on all of the matters that were on the agenda of those negotiations," Mbeki said, adding that the three leaders had already endorsed and signed the document.
Mbeki called on all regional and international leaders to respect and support the agreement, as well as Zimbabwe in its economic recovery efforts. "This agreement comes from Zimbabweans themselves, and this is what makes it inevitable that it will succeed," he said.
"The rest of the world needs to respect that the people of Zimbabwe have made a decision about the future of their country, and the rest of us - we are foreigners and need to respect what the people of Zimbabwe have said."
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the agreement, saying he hoped it would "pave the way for a durable peace and recovery in the country and contribute to rapid improvement in the welfare and human rights of the people of Zimbabwe."
In a statement released on Thursday, Ban congratulated the parties on their agreement and commended Mbeki "for his tireless efforts to help them reach it."
The power-sharing accord is designed to end the political crisis and resulting violence, unrest and humanitarian suffering that has engulfed Zimbabwe since parliamentary and presidential elections were held in March.
The country is reeling from an economic crisis that has destroyed Zimbabwe's currency and made it difficult for Zimbabweans to buy basic commodities, electricity, fuel and medicines. About a third of its 12-million citizens have fled and most of those who remain barely survive on a diet of mealie-meal porridge.
In a statement released on Friday, South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs said the people of Zimbabwe could now "draw inspiration from the knowledge that the people of South Africa, the SADC, Africa and progressive humankind stand ready to partner with them as they embark on the difficult road of reconstruction, reconciliation and nation building."
Source: BuaNews
