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| Zimbabwe's parties will have little to tell Zuma as Mugabe once again digs in his heels |
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| author/source:Cape Times (SA) |
| published:Wed 31-Mar-2010 |
| posted on this site:Wed 31-Mar-2010 |
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| Article Type : News |
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Stanley Gama, Foreign Service
Harare - President Robert Mugabe appears to have dug in his heels again, and so negotiators from Zimbabwe's three main parties are expected to have little progress in kickstarting their stalled unity government to report back to President Jacob Zuma today. Mugabe and his Zanu PF are still believed to be insisting they will implement none of their outstanding commitments to the the 18-month-old Global Political Agreement (GPA) until targeted Western sanctions against him and his cronies are lifted. Zuma visited Harare for two days of intense discussions with the three parties and others two weeks ago and extracted from the parties an agreement they would implement their outstanding GPA commitments and report back to him by today. Despite the lack of progress, the negotiators from the three parties in the unity government - Zanu PF and the two MDC factions - were expecting to work late yesterday to try to have something to show Zuma.
Zuma is the official Zimbabwe talks facilitator of SADC, and so he is obliged in turn to report to the chairman of the SADC Troika on Defence and Politics, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, who is the official supervisor of the talks. A government official close to the talks said in Harare yesterday: "Negotiators have to finish discussions by the end of the day today (yesterday) so that they can send the report to the principals and simultaneously to Zuma. But the implementation is proving to be a problem, because Zanu PF is still insisting they will not give in on the issue of sanctions. But there is a slight movement in that the MDC seems to have relaxed their demands to have Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana removed from their jobs. In return, the MDC is getting favourable concessions on issues around media reforms and the electoral environment. Otherwise, on the main issues like provincial governors and Roy Bennett, there is no movement," he said.
After his talks here two weeks ago, Zuma told the press that the parties had agreed on many outstanding issues and said negotiators had been instructed to implement the agreements. Sources in the talks had reported after Zuma's visit that Mugabe had agreed to remove Tomana and the MDC had accepted that Gono could stay, largely because it felt he had been neutralised by the transfer of most of his power to the finance ministry, now controlled by the MDC's Tendai Biti. It was also reported that Mugabe would drop the treason charges against Bennett which had held up his appointment as deputy agriculture minister and that he would be appointed to a different government position. But soon after Zuma travelled back to South Africa, Mugabe told his officials nothing had been agreed upon. And yesterday evening no signs of the compromise which Zuma appeared to have effected were visible.
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