Mbeki continues Zimbabwe mediation
Bathandwa Mbola
13 October 2008
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki travels to Zimbabwe this week to try resolve a political deadlock over the agreed-on unity government in that country.
Mbeki will meet with leaders of both the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to continue the Southern African Development Community-mandated facilitation process which began in March to end years of political and economic strife in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC-Mutambara faction leader Arthur Mutambara resolved to approach Mbeki after failing again to resolve the impasse over the allocation of Cabinet posts.
"Yes, he [Mbeki] and his delegation are flying to Harare … to make sure there is a solution to the power-sharing deal," Mbeki's spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga, told BuaNews.
He added that Mbeki would be accompanied by the former provincial and local government minister Sydney Mufamadi, director-general in the presidency Frank Chikane and Advocate Mojanku Gumbi.
'Full confidence in Mbeki'
Mbeki, who brokered the Zimbabwe power-sharing deal days before he resigned from office, has agreed to continue his mediation role, while the South African government has also given its full support for his continued mediation efforts.
"Mbeki's facilitation efforts in Zimbabwe have proven his dispassionate vision for a lasting political solution to the challenges facing Zimbabwe," said President Kgalema Motlanthe in a statement issued earlier this month.
"Our government has full confidence in Mbeki's ability to build on the historic successes already made in the power sharing negotiations under his mediation."
Power-sharing agreement
The power-sharing agreement signed by Zimbabwe's three biggest political parties stipulates that Mugabe will remain president while Tsvangirai becomes prime minister and Mutambara the deputy prime minister.
The agreement which is outlined under a 15 September power-sharing deal, allots 15 Cabinet posts to Zanu-PF, 13 to the Tsvangirai-led MDC and three to Mutambara's faction.
However the bare-bones agreement does not say who gets which specific posts and the rival parties have since the signing of the agreement wrangled over who should control the important ministries of home affairs, finance, local government, foreign affairs. For this reason the deadlock is attributed to disagreements over ministries of finance and home affairs.
Source: BuaNews
