Financial Gazette
Njabulo Ncube, Political Editor
9th October 2008
A FRESH round of negotiations to unlock the impasse over the allocation of ministries between the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and ZANU-PF collapsed last night with President Robert Mugabe’s negotiating team dangling the release of Morgan Tsvangirai’s passport as a bargaining chip.
Before the negotiations yesterday, former South African president Thabo Mbeki had to shelve his trip to Harare after being advised to allow the three parties to iron out their differences without recourse to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) appointed mediator.
Mbeki was reportedly due in the capital on Tuesday at the invitation of the MDC, which had asked SADC to salvage the dialogue.
ZANU-PF and MDC negotiators have been locked in marathon talks for almost two weeks but have hit a brick wall over the allocation of the 31 ministerial posts.
While ZANU-PF claims the dispute revolves round the ministries of Finance and Home Affairs, the MDC is adamant the stalemate is on all Cabinet portfolios and the 10 posts for provincial governors.
ZANU-PF has since last week demanded all key ministries in the all-inclusive government, but Tsvangirai has rejected an uneven distribution of portfolios.
“We are still in the same deadlock. We failed to agree. ZANU-PF is trying to give us a bicycle without wheels but we are refusing to ride that bicycle,” MDC-T chief negotiator, Tendai Biti told The Financial Gazette last night. “As MDC we are discussing among ourselves whether the principals should meet or call in the facilitator,” Biti added.
Earlier ZANU-PF chief negotiator, Patrick Chinamasa accused the MDC of endangering the talks by negotiation in public.He said: “The MDC is prejudicing talks by trying to negotiate in public. That will not assist the process. That is a sure way of collapsing the negotiations.” Chinamasa said there was no need to involve Mbeki at this stage. “We must keep talking. The facilitator (Mbeki) is not going to run this country,” he said.
Sources privy to the talks said the release of Tsvangirai’s passport was being used by ZANU-PF negotiators to force the MDC leader to accept whatever ministerial posts foisted on him and his team.
They claimed meetings with Kembo Mohadi yesterday proved fruitless after the Home Affairs Minister allegedly told the MDC the passport was with President Mugabe.
Tsvangirai’s spokesman, George Sibotshiwe said the MDC leader had been promised his passport yesterday but was shocked that it had taken the spotlight in the allocation of ministerial posts.
“We now believe they are using the passport to tempt him to sign,” said Sibotshiwe.
“This morning when we went to the RG (Registrar General)’s office, they told us point blank to phone President Mugabe. We have no doubt the passport is being used as a bargaining chip,” he said.
But Presidential spokesman, George Charamba dismissed MDC claims that his boss was holding on to Tsvangirai’s passport, saying that the MDC leader was frustrated because his political machinations were not falling into place as planned by his handlers.
“How does he know that ZANU-PF is using his passport as bait? Let him ask for a passport in a proper way,” Charamba said.
“The RG’s office has a constitutional mandate to issue passports and other identity documents. But I know why he is saying that. Tsvangirai is frustrated because he wanted to hold a joint press conference with Mutambara but Mutambara did not show up. We also know why his party is demanding the Home Affairs ministry. They held discussions in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa recently but we can’t go into that now,” he said.
In a brief telephone interview, Mohadi yesterday said his superiors in government were handling the Tsvangirai passport issue. “He (Tsvangirai) is my boss but there are other superiors that can help him. So if he has a problem he should go to his boss in government,” said Mohadi.
Tsvangirai yesterday postponed a press conference at his home on the stalled power-sharing agreement to today.
Leader of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress Jacob Zuma on Tuesday threw his weight behind Mbeki’s mediation.
But analysts doubt if Mbeki still has the clout to deal with the differences threatening the deal following his ouster last month.
Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist with the University of Zimbabwe believes Mbeki would now be more of a lame duck mediator.
“He has been weakened a great deal. He is still smarting from his recall. I don’t see him coming to the mediation with the kind of stamina, zeal and robustness he displayed during previous missions,” said Masunungure.
Useni Sibanda, the coordinator of the Christian Alliance of Zimbabwe, which has also been monitoring the dialogue, said SADC now needed to bring in the extended team of United Nations and African Union officials to assist Mbeki.
“The reference team is now needed more than before,” said Sibanda. “The leverage he had as South African state president is no longer there. It is time the other members of the reference group came into the picture to assist him otherwise I don’t see the negotiating parties giving Mbeki the same respect he enjoyed in the past one year,” Sibanda said.
The discord in the negotiations is beginning to attract sharp criticism from parliamentarians.
Mwenezi East Member of Parliament, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, this week told a parliamentary caucus that the national leadership was letting the nation down. Bhasikiti requested Chinamasa to convey an appeal to the three principals in the negotiations as a matter of urgency saying the crisis threatened to spin out of control.
“When the power sharing deal was signed we all celebrated hoping that relief was coming. But nearly a month later nothing has happened and people are getting disillusioned,” Bhasikiti said.
David Coltart, the legal affairs secretary for the Mutambara-led MDC, said while failure to name a new cabinet was regrettable people should not despair.
“We need to be tolerant, patient and lower our expectations. The deal is only three weeks old yet it took Kenya five months to come up with a national unity government,” said Coltart.