Zimbabwe crisis drags on
Michael Appel
11 November 2008
An extraordinary meeting of leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), held in Johannesburg on Sunday, failed to break the political stalemate in Zimbabwe.
The power-sharing deal signed in September by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai has stalled over the allocation of key cabinet ministries.
Sunday's meeting was the third held by regional leaders over the last three weeks in an attempt to press the rivals into a compromise.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai told media early on Monday morning that he rejected the SADC's latest compromise proposal of co-managing the ministry of home affairs.
"A great opportunity has been missed by the Southern African Development Community [SADC] to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe," Tsvangirai said after a marathon session of negotiations on Sunday. "We are shocked and saddened that the SADC Summit has failed to deal with outstanding issues".
These issues, Tsvangirai said, related to more than just the allocation of the ministry of home affairs to a particular party, but to the fact that the historic power-sharing agreement signed on 15 September had still not been implemented.
Regard the division of government portfolios, Tsvangirai said Mugabe's Zanu-PF were in charge of the ministry of defence as well as state security, and it therefore only made sense to allocate home affairs to the MDC.
According to the United Nations (UN), nearly half of Zimbabwe's population needs international food aid. This has been worsened by the country's high inflation rate, which is estimated to be around 231 million percent.
Source: BuaNews
