As the saga over the failure by Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to attend this week’s SADC heads of state meeting in Mbabane, Swaziland on Monday, because of failure by the Registrar-General’s office to issue the MDC leader with a new passport continues, indications on the ground reveal the power sharing talks are in danger of collapse.
Tsvangirai was supposed to meet with Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF, Professor Arthur Mutambara of the smaller MDC faction as well as regional leaders from SADC who constitute the troika on Security, Politics and Defence, to attempt a break on the five-week long deadlock in sharing of cabinet posts.
Zanu PF and the two MDC formations signed a power sharing deal on Sept. 15th, through the mediation of SADC-appointed, former South Africa president Thabo Mbeki. Under the deal Tsvangirai is supposed to become Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe, President and Professor Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister. The political settlement is a bid to end the political and economic turmoil that has gripped Zimbabwe since 2000.
The three parties agreed to set 31 cabinet posts, with Zanu PF getting 15, MDC-Tsvangirai 13 and MDC-Mutambara three. The impasse, however is on how to share the ministries considered “key’, as Home Affairs, Information and Local Government.
In a statement on Tsvangirai’s passport application Tuesday, MDC spokesperson, Nelson Chamisa, said while there is “no valid legal or logistical reason” not to issue the MDC leader with a new passport, the “significance” of the passport ‘issue” is bigger than the “document in question.”
Chamisa said the failure to provide Tsvangirai with a passport is a “stark illustration of the lack of trust and goodwill exhibited by Zanu PF towards the MDC” and the successful implementation of the political settlement. He further said if Tsvangirai does not get a new passport “prior to next week’s meeting” it will be viewed by MDC as an “indication that Zanu PF is not willing to proceed in the spirit of the agreement”, a move which might see MDC pulling out of the agreement.
Earlier, Chamisa told Reuters that the ‘preferred trajectory is to conclude the negotiations” but that in the ‘absence of the ideal” Zimbabweans might be left with no option but to “decide who should have power through an election which is credible.”
Chamisa said the MDC National Executive will meet before Friday this week to deliberate “on the way forward” saying the MDC structures are calling for a “fresh” presidential plebiscite accusing Zanu PF of negotiating in “bad faith.”
Leader of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, Jacob Zuma, on a visit to Washington, DC Tuesday, also described as “weird’ failure to issue Tsvangirai with a passport
“…You cannot have this kind of a situation when you are dealing with such an important matter. One of the very key figures cannot attend because he does not have a passport. I think that sounds weird,” said Zuma.
Regional critic, Botswana, also on Monday called for new elections in Zimbabwe between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. In a letter written to SADC and copied to the African Union (AU), Botswana said the only workable answer to the “political impasse is for the people of Zimbabwe as enshrined in a truly democratic dispensation, to be the ones to decide who their true leaders should be…the only way forward is a re-run of the presidential election under international supervision in order to avoid a repetition of the violence and political intimidation that characterised the failed June 27, 2008 presidential run-off election.”
Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe in the first round of the March 29 presidential election but fell short of the majority 50 plus one percent required to be declared winner. MDC however pulled out of the second round June 27 election, which was won by Mugabe unopposed, citing violence and intimidation on the party’s supporters.
Meanwhile Zanu PF, Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity, Bright Matonga, was quoted in today’s edition of the state controlled daily, The Herald, saying that the MDC should go to the meeting on Monday and not ‘waffle in the press.’
“What is clear is that there is going to be a meeting on Monday. There is no one who is bigger than the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe.
‘What we want to make very clear to Zanu PF and Government is that no one will ever hold this country to ransom, we do not care who they are.
‘That is the message we have to anyone who thinks they have a big stake in this country. The issue is not about a passport or travel document. They want to spoil the talks,” Matonga is quoted as saying.
As new developments threaten the power sharing deal between Zanu PF and MDC, the country continues to bleed. Inflation is at a world record high 231 million percent, people's standards of living deteriorate on a daily basis and there is an acute food crisis, with humanitarian food agency, World Food Programme, reporting that close to 5 million Zimbabwens are in dire need of food aid.
