Zuma’s team meets negotiators

Zuma’s team meets GPA negotiators

Talks kick-start ... Lindiwe Zulu

TALKS to resolve differences still dividing the country’s coalition administration resumed in Harare on Monday with the negotiators briefing a team dispatched by South Africa President and SADC facilitator, Jacob Zuma on the status of the dialogue.

President Zuma sent his representatives Charles Nqakula, Mac Maharaj and Lindiwe Zulu to Harare on Sunday to help restart the talks which were suspended two weeks ago amid fears of a complete breakdown as the parties took hard-line positions.

Zanu PF vowed not to make anymore concessions until the MDC formations called for the removal of sanctions while Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s party threatened to declare a deadlock in the talks and call for elections.

However as news broke that Zuma was sending his representatives to Harare President Robert Mugabe met with the MDC leaders and reached agreement on the individuals to chair statutory bodies to oversee elections and human rights.

Meanwhile the Zanu PF and MDC negotiators met Zuma’s team behind closed doors for several hours in the capital and later emerged to underplay concerns that divisions between the parties had deepened.

MDC-M lead negotiator Professor Welshman Ncube said while public posturing by the respective parties suggested that they remained miles apart the atmosphere around the negotiation table was more encouraging.

Still MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti said the parties could not afford to talk to no end.

“The bottom line as the MDC is that these negotiations cannot carry on, there should be an end,” Biti said.

The MDC-T’s national spokesperson, Nelson Chamisa also reiterated the party’s position that elections should be held if the negotiations failed.

"We hope the facilitation team will unlock the logjam so that we have all the outstanding issues cleared and resolved once and for all.

"If that fails, there is only one option, putting in place an electoral regime to facilitate for free and fair elections and that is what will give real change to Zimbabwe. We are hoping the facilitation will be successful, if not, lets agree on a framework for a free and fair election," Chamisa told the party’s website.

The MDC-T wants its nomination for deputy agriculture minister Roy Bennett sworn into office and the appointments of the head of the country’s central bank as well as the attorney general reversed.

In addition, Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s party’s is also demanding an “equitable” distribution of top government jobs.

However Zanu PF insists the appointments of the central bank governor and the attorney general were constitutional while President Mugabe has said Bennett will not be sworn into office unless he is cleared of treason charges.

The party also ordered its negotiators not give any further ground in the ongoing dialogue until sanctions imposed by western countries are removed.

Source: New Zimbabwe

Published here: 8 February 2010