The visiting Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministerial committee has amended its programme to accommodate Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and representatives of influential civic society organisations after protests.

The troika, comprising  Foreign Affairs ministers from Zambia, Angola and Mozambique amended their programme Thursday morning after protests byTsvangirai and representatives of civic society.

The troika, which is on a five-day visit in Zimbabwe, had only paid a courtesy call on ZANU PF leader President Robert Mugabe and had also excluded meeting representatives of influential civic society organisations during their consultations in Zimbabwe.

They also met deputy Prime Minister and a smaller faction MDC leader Arthur Mutambara.

The troika is expected to meet the three principals to the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which led to the formation of the fragile transitional coalition government on Friday. At the end of their mission the ministerial team will pay a courtesy call on both Tsvangirai and Mugabe before leaving the country on Saturday.

SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao told journalists on Thursday after meeting Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara in Harare that the mission would look into the current problems bedeviling the unity government.

“We have had a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, and we shall meet SADC Diplomats, a meeting with MDC-T and the ZANU PF representatives. The mission is to review the implementation of the Global Political Agreement,” said Salamao.

Asked whether the mission had anything to do with the current impasse, Salamao said: “Obviously, you have to take into consideration what is going on. You cannot run a review without taking into consideration what is going on.”

Tsvangirai partially withdrew his MDC party from the eight-month old administration citing lack of implementation of certain sections of the GPA.

Mugabe has refused to swear in deputy agriculture minister designate Roy Bennett and swearing governors from Tsvangirai’s party. He has said that all that ZANU PF was required to do has been fulfilled. He has refused to terminate Reserve bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana saying their appointments last year were constitutional.

(Source)