Messages From Zimbabwe

Political turmoil is likely to fester for months to come, stunting investment, prolonging an aid freeze and wilting green shoots of economic recovery that were sprouting.

A broad-based solution to the 11-month long crisis looks increasingly unlikely in the near future after President Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) seems intent on rolling into action the December 2009 congress resolutions to trash the global political agreement and staunchly refuse to implement terms of a power-sharing deal.

A political commentator, Ronald Shumba said the balance of power was in Mugabe’s favour, and he appeared to be in no hurry to negotiate.

“It’s not a question of Maputo failing. It is just part of a long bargaining process,” Shumba said this week.

“Mugabe doesn’t need to give too much too quickly with the army behind him. They will just offer token gestures.”

Prior to the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Maputo, Mugabe showed signs of seeing reason to implement fully the power-sharing pact. But by the time of his December congress, the deeply troubled leader was on his old turf, saying a vehement no to any resolution of the outstanding issues with his arch-opponents.

“Zanu (PF), as the party of revolution and the people’s vanguard, shall not allow the security forces of Zimbabwe to be the subject of any negotiation for a so called ‘security sector reform’ that is based on patent misrepresentations of Zimbabwe’s heroic history and for the mere purpose of weakening the state so that it can be easily overthrown,” said one of the Zanu (PF) congress resolutions.

Significantly, the party resolved to “extricate itself” from its liaison with the MDC which it branded “ideologically incompatible” so as to “retain its mantle as the only dominant and ascendant political party that is truly representative and determined to safeguard the aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe.”

Southern African nations have been accused of being too soft on Mugabe and his party and has dismally failed to ensure implementation of a pact which the regional bloc brokered.

The negotiators are not due to meet again until mid-January.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s MDC party has slammed the continued hold up in fully implementing the pact.

“As MDC we are expecting the negotiating team to meet and finalise on the unfinished business of implementing the outstanding issues,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. “Our wish is to have the matter concluded as soon as possible so that we can start focusing on the bread and butter issues that are affecting the people of Zimbabwe.”

Chamisa said he hoped outstanding issues had to be referred to SADC for arbitration “so that we move ahead with the business of the inclusive government.”

The fast economic turnaround ushered in by the use of multiple foreign currencies and the abandonment of the inflation-prone Zimbabwe dollar has benefited all citizens: more and more people in rural areas have shrugged off poverty; urban residents are becoming better off.

But analysts are warning that failure to implement the pact fully could see the country sliding back to instability.

More than 70 percent of the budget is donor funded. Several major donors including the International Monetary Fund, the United States and European Union have frozen aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars in development finance, and are demanding full implementation of the power-sharing pact before they bankroll the administration.
Others believe the popular MDC leader will simply hope to limp through to the next presidential election, which is scheduled for next year under the terms of the power-sharing deal.

“Morgan will be thinking he’s just got to get through this, hold elections and count on people to have him form an exclusive MDC government,” said one diplomatic source.

There are understood to be efforts afoot to unite the two MDC formations before elections to form a powerful front against Mugabe.

(Source)

Zimbabwe’s political rivals have agreed some outstanding issues of a power-sharing deal, but the pace of negotiations is slow, a South African official mediating in the talks said on Tuesday.

President Robert Mugabe and long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai, now prime minister, formed a unity government last year in February after disputed elections, but the coalition has been hobbled by disputes over power-sharing.

Lindiwe Zulu, international relations advisor to South African President Jacob Zuma, said while South Africa was not happy with the pace of talks, there was progress on some issues.

“I don’t think that we should be talking of escalating conflict at this point in time. We are not saying that we are happy with the speed at which they are working but we think there are a number of things they’ve agreed upon,” Sisulu told South African Talk Radio 702.

South Africa is mediating in the Zimbabwe negotiations and Zimbabwean media reports say Africa’s biggest economy wants all outstanding issues resolved before it hosts the soccer World Cup in June.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in October “disengaged” from cabinet meetings with Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, accusing it of being an “unreliable partner” but rejoined after mediation by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Mugabe and Tsvangirai are haggling over the appointment of provincial governors and the veteran leader’s refusal to swear in Tsvangirai ally Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister.

The 85-year-old president has also refused to sack allies he appointed as central bank governor and attorney general without consulting Tsvangirai.

Mugabe says the MDC should call off Western sanctions against his party and ask its backers in the West to shut down what he calls pirate radio stations broadcasting into Zimbabwe from the United States and Britain.

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Talks to break Zimbabwe’s protracted political deadlock appear to head for a stalemate after President Robert Mugabe vowed Saturday never to give in to demands by his coalition partners on power-sharing.

Addressing about 10,000 loyalists at the close of the national congress of his ZANU PF party on Saturday night, Mugabe said he would not make any concessions during talks with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to break a power-sharing deadlock on outstanding issues from an agreement they signed 15 months ago.

“No tactic, no pressure will make us change our position,” said a defiant Mugabe, citing a resolution by delegates to his party’s congress.

Mugabe has refused to swear in Tsvangirai’s ally Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister, saying he must first be cleared of terrorism charges.

The MDC, however, says the terrorism charges are false and politically motivated to prevent Bennett – a white farmer – from taking up his job in the new government.

The former opposition party also accuses Mugabe of breaching the power-sharing agreement by appointing his allies to head the central bank and the Attorney General’s office without consulting his coalition partners.

Mugabe said ZANU PF would only consider giving in to the MDC’s demands once Tsvangirai’s party honoured its own pledges to seek the lifting of travel bans imposed by the West on senior ZANU PF officials as well as the closure of “pirate” radio stations broadcasting from Europe and some neighbouring countries.

Mugabe and more than 200 of its supporters are barred from travelling to and owning assets in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States under targeted sanctions imposed in 2002 in retaliation to what the West said were human rights abuses by his regime.

 (Source)

South African mediators are meeting with negotiators for Zimbabwe’s feuding political parties in a renewed effort to resolve the issues dividing the nation’s transitional government and hindering its recovery.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the talks will wrap up successfully before the deadline set by the Southern African Development Community, the regional intergovernmental group that brought the parties together in the Global Political agreement, or GPA,  that created the transitional government. But if President Robert Mugabe’s negotiating team continues to press issues that Prime Minister Tsvangirai and other opposition party members have no control over, reaching consensus may be impossible. And given Mugabe’s track record in dealing with his opponents that unfortunately may be the point.

The Mugabe-controlled Herald newspaper in Harare quoted one negotiator as saying the talks have foundered on 4 major points. These are naming a new attorney general and new governor of the country’s Reserve Bank; lifting international sanctions imposed on Mugabe and members of his circle; and silencing foreign media outlets broadcasting into Zimbabwe. Of these, only the ministerial posts are within the power of those at the bargaining table, and they are Mugabe’s representatives.

Lifting the sanctions is a familiar theme in the Mugabe mantra, proof if anything of their effectiveness in making him and other key members of the ZANU-PF party understand the costs of their destructive policies. The European Union, United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Switzerland, all of whom have targeted sanctions in place, have repeatedly responded that in supporting the GPA they expect actions, not promises toward real reform.

Foreign broadcasters such as the Voice of America’s Studio Seven and London-based SW Radio Africa, among others – “pirate radio stations” in the Mugabe lexicon – also are a long-running irritant for Mugabe that he has irresponsibly added to the unity talks. Foreign broadcasters are forced to operate outside of Zimbabwe because there are no free media there. Independent radio is banned in a monopoly of government-sponsored news, information and opinion provided by the ZBC.

If the Mugabe regime really wants foreign-based stations to stop broadcasting into Zimbabwe, let it release its grip on the media there, liberalize the press and broadcasting environment, and domestic radio stations will flourish.

(Source)

The partial immunity from prosecution granted to the Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono through amendments to the Reserve Bank Reform Bill “is a safe exit strategy” for a man under immense pressure to throw in the towel, political analysts said last week.

Parliament passed the Bill after it was amended to include a clause that gives partial immunity to Gono or any employee of the bank “for anything done in good faith and without negligence under the powers conferred by this Act”.

Earlier in the week, ZANU PF MPs had threatened to block the Bill because they felt it was “targeted at an individual rather than an office”.

But the analysts said by agreeing to a clause that gives immunity to Gono, ZANU PF had, in a way, endorsed calls for the central bank chief to make way for fresh ideas.

They said ZANU PF can no longer bear with the pressure from both MDC and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on the resolution of the outstanding issues to the power-sharing agreement with the MDC factions.

The MDC-T has been pushing for the removal of Gono from the RBZ accusing him of destroying the economy through quasi-fiscal policies and recklessly funding ZANU PF programmes.

A SADC ministerial team that assessed the implementation of power-sharing agreement between ZANU PF and the two MDC formations recommended that Gono should be reassigned to save the shaky coalition from collapse.

University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure said the immunity granted to Gono was to pave way for “a soft landing” for the troubled RBZ chief.

Masunungure said the fact that the immunity came through an amendment gives credence to speculation that Gono might soon be reassigned.

“This is meant to pave a way for soft landing and a trouble-free exit from the central bank,” Masunungure said.

“It’s a golden handshake for him and he will soon be reassigned to a politically invisible job where he will start a new life without being haunted by prospects of being prosecuted.”

Another UZ science lecturer, John Makumbe agreed but described the immunity as a “costly” golden handshake.

Makumbe blasted the MDC formations for making such a “concession” saying it was an insult to Zimbabweans who suffered at the hands of Gono’s poor quasi-fiscal policies.

“It’s dangerous to give immunity to a person who destroyed our economy propping up ZANU PF,” Makumbe said.

“I am furious about it. The MDC has no authority to grant anyone immunity.”

After granting immunity to Gono, said Makumbe, it will be a contradiction to prosecute all those fingered in a recent audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General Mildred Chiri.

In her report for the first quarter of 2009 financial year tabled in Parliament recently, she said members of President Robert Mugabe’s previous administration took advantage of a vacuum in government to loot state property.

The report revealed that state assets such as cars, laptops, computers, fax machines, cell phones and spares for vehicles were stolen by ministers, deputies and other senior government officials.

“Chiri has done a brilliant audit. What is Biti going to do to the ministers who looted vehicles and laptops when he is giving the chief culprit immunity?” Makumbe asked.

But Finance Minister Tendai Biti who at one time called Gono “the country’s number one enemy said the Bill did not provide immunity for cases of theft, fraud or a breach of the law.

“The new provision in the Bill simply says those officials who acted in good faith and without negligence will not be liable to prosecution.

“It does not say anywhere that where there has been theft, fraud or where there has been a breach of the law, the people should not be prosecuted,” Biti said.

The Bill, which faces further scrutiny in the ZANU PF-dominated Senate, will reduce the powers of the governor and restrict the bank to core business of dealing with interest rates, currency management and regulating banks.

The governor’s core function would be to chair a planned monetary policy committee.

However, the central bank governor would continue to chair the RBZ board.

Biti proposed cutting to two deputy governors from the four catered for under the current law.

Critics blame Gono for policies that crippled the economy, stoking inflation by printing money and taking over functions of the national treasury, including buying farming inputs and extending financial support to government departments.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Mugabe are locked in a dispute on how to share power, with the MDC-T leader accusing the veteran ruler of refusing to appoint a new central bank governor and attorney general as part of their political pact signed last year.

Mugabe has vowed that Gono will not be sacked.

(Source)

President Jacob Zuma is preparing to intervene urgently in Zimbabwe as his advisers express impatience with Zimbabwean leaders for failing to meet to resolve their differences.

Regional leaders at summit in Maputo on November 5 gave the Zimbabweans 15 to 30 days to sort out their differences.

But 17 days later, the Zimbabwean leaders have not yet met.

Zuma’s international relations adviser, Lindiwe Zulu, said yesterday the delay was worrying and this had forced the Presidency to speed up its facilitation role.

“We have been engaging with the people of Zimbabwe since the Maputo summit and we cannot afford to miss the deadline set by SADC,” she said.

“The negotiators have to be serious with the deadline they were given and we hope to push them to meet.

“The facilitator (Zuma) wants the process speeded up because this issue has been dragging on for a long time.

“People from this side have been travelling to Zimbabwe to meet the political leaders and we have no option except to push for an agreement.”

Zuma was expected to travel to Harare on December 6 to assess the negotiations.

But reports from Pretoria suggest that he might go earlier if the political leaders in Zimbabwe continue to drag their feet on negotiations. Regional leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) held a summit in Maputo on November 5 to discuss the continuing failure of the Zimbabwean leaders to resolve their differences.

This was after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), partially pulled out of the unity government to protest against President Robert Mugabe’s failure to implement agreements.

These included his refusal to appoint MDC officials to senior government posts and Mugabe’s demand that the MDC do more to persuade Western countries to lift sanctions against senior ZANU PF figures.

The leaders, including Zuma, gave the Zimbabweans 15 days to resolve their differences with a further 15 days’ grace before SADC intervened.

But the Zimbabwean parties have not met because the negotiators of the smaller MDC faction led by deputy prime minister Arthur Mutambara have been overseas for the past two weeks.

MDC-Mutambara negotiators Professor Welshman Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga were also said to be out of the country.

MDC-Tsvangirai negotiator and finance minister Tendai Biti said in Harare yesterday that they were still waiting to hear from Ncube and Misihairabwi-Mushonga before they could resume negotiations.

“I am not sure when the negotiators who are said to be out of the country will avail themselves for the negotiations.

“We have not heard from them but I am confident the meeting will be held and we will be able to meet the deadline.

“Even if it means we have to work through the night when they avail themselves, then we have to do it. There is no going back on the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA),” said Biti, referring to the agreement which created the unity government.

However Misihairabwi-Mushonga said they were back in Zimbabwe, although she refused to comment further.

“You can only speak to Professor Ncube, but we are back in the country,” she said yesterday.

Ncube could not be reached for comment. Tsvangirai’s MDC was bitter about what it described as a deliberate ploy to delay the implementation process.

It suspects that there is some connivance between the Mutambara faction and ZANU PF to delay the implementation process.

“The deadline set by the SADC troika for the resolution of outstanding issues has once again been missed because of the intransigence, mischief and insincerity exhibited by the political players who are not taking the plight of the people of Zimbabwe seriously,” said Tsvangirai’s MDC in a statement.

“For two weeks, Zimbabweans have waited in vain for the political gridlock to be unlocked.

“We note with concern that the body language from both ZANU PF and the Mutambara-led political outfit does not show sincerity and faithfulness to resolving the outstanding issues.

“The MDC expects urgent resolution of issues that have stalled the work of the inclusive government.

“We expect that all parties, especially those that have chosen to ignore the important time-frames, targets and deadlines set by SADC, should urgently meet and clear the deck of the outstanding issues that have poisoned the people’s collective journey of hope spawned by the formation of the inclusive government in February 2009.”

Nine months into the inclusive government, the MDC is complaining that Mugabe has still not appointed party members as provincial governors or to one of the key positions of attorney-general or Reserve Bank governor.

The MDC also complains about Mugabe’s refusal to appoint MDC deputy minister of agriculture-designate Roy Bennett, the slow progress in the constitution-making process and the continued harassment of MDC supporters and officials.

Apart from sanctions, Mugabe wants the MDC to stop foreign radio stations like the Voice of America broadcasting in Zimbabwe.

(Source)

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party on Sunday invited the African Union (AU) and a regional group to help break a deadlock in its unity government with President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was committed to the power-sharing agreement, but wanted to see more respect for civil rights, the rule of law and the implementation of political reconciliation.

Long-time rivals Mugabe and Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formed a unity government in February after months of wrangling but sharp differences remain over issues such as the review of the posts of central bank governor and attorney general.

On Sunday, the MDC’s National Council agreed that the AU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) - which brokered the Zimbabwe power-sharing deal - should step in to break a deadlock with Mugabe on issues still unresolved under their Global Political Agreement (GPA).

“The National Council resolved that all outstanding issues be referred to SADC and the AU as guarantors to the GPA,” the MDC said in statement.

“The transitional government should also urgently deal with issues of governance, national healing, democratization and the rule of law,” it said.

Tsvangirai and Mugabe’s formation of a unity government in February raised hopes of an end to years of political tensions and an economic meltdown. But progress has been slow because of turf wars in government departments and the appointment of some senior state officials.

The MDC is angry at what it says is the persecution of its supporters, many of whom have cases pending in the courts for allegedly plotting to oust Mugabe.

The party has also protested against a fresh wave of farm invasions by Mugabe’s ZANU PF members and last week’s arrest of two independent journalists and a top human rights lawyer.

Tsvangirai told an MDC rally in southeastern Zimbabwe after the party’s national council meeting that there was no alternative to the power-sharing deal with Mugabe.

“This was and is the only practical solution for us to move forward and it has to work for the sake of all Zimbabweans,” he said.

“We are committed, and the others must show their commitment too by addressing what we are raising on political freedoms, rule of law, respect for the agreement,” he added.

The MDC council also said Mugabe - who has quietly refused to remove ZANU PF political allies he appointed to head the central bank and the attorney-general’s office - should allow government-owned media more freedom.

Western donors have demanded that the unity government carry out wider political and media reforms and release all political prisoners before committing funding.

The southern African country, ravaged by a decade of economic decline blamed on Mugabe’s policies, urgently needs cash to revive its stricken industries. It estimates it needs a total of $8.3 billion to restore the economy.

(Source)

Following the Zimbabwean parliament’s passage this week of an amendment enabling the formation of a long-delayed unity government, another session Tuesday is expected to pass a bill creating a National Security Council that will oversee state security forces. Creation of the National Security Council was a key demand by the Movement for Democratic Change formation led by prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai, which sought the panel to give the opposition party visibility into the functioning of the state security apparatus which was deeply implicated in deadly post-election violence in April-June 2008. But political sources say problems are cropping up again between the MDC and the ZANU PF party of President Robert Mugabe over the allocation of provincial governorships. The Tsvangirai MDC says it should name the governors of the five provinces it won in March 2008 general elections; ZANU PF wants five as well though it only won four provinces. The rival MDC formation led by Arthur Mutambara meanwhile wants the governorship for Matabeleland South, which it dominated in the general election.

Elsewhere, the Tsvangirai MDC formation has been rocked by allegations that seven of its parliamentarians including Evelyne Masaiti, tipped to join Tsvangirai’s cabinet, were involved in diverting subsidized agricultural materials intended to be distributed to farmers. The seven have denied the allegations. Tsvangirai MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told VOA that the party will look into the allegations, promising that if they are found to be true heads will roll. A ZANU PF house member and one ZANU PF senator have been implicated too. In a judicial development with political implications, a Harare magistrate on Friday threw out treason charges pending against Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Tsvangirai opposition formation. The charges were brought against Biti for allegedly prematurely announcing election results last year and plotting the overthrow of the government. Magistrate Olivia Mariga dismissed the charges after Biti’s lawyers produced evidence - a recording of comments by a prosecutor - that the case was politically inspired. Defender Lewis Uriri told VOA that the conversation he taped reflected clear political bias by the state prosecutor.

(Source)

Zimbabwean negotiators joined hastily arranged talks in South Africa on Wednesday in an effort to ensure a unity government is formed this month.

Party officials said their negotiators were called to South Africa on Tuesday, after the main opposition complained that President Robert Mugabe’s party was delaying and endangering chances that a power-sharing agreement, which has been stalled since September, would finally be implemented.

Last week, regional leaders pressed Mugabe’s ZANU PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to start making their agreement a reality Thursday in parliament by passing a constitutional amendment creating a prime minister’s post.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is to be prime minister and Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is to remain president in the unity government.

The regional leaders, meeting as the Southern African Development Community, also said Tsvangirai should be sworn in by Feb. 11 and the rest of the unity Cabinet sworn in on Feb. 13.

South African presidential spokesman Thabo Masebe said the negotiators were called to South Africa on Wednesday “to ensure that they are ready to meet all the deadlines that were set by SADC.”

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe is the current chairman of the SADC and former South African President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating among Zimbabwe’s factions on behalf of the regional leaders’ group.

Zimbabwean lawmakers may not be able to meet Thursday’s deadline for approving the constitutional amendment. Joram Gumbo, ZANU PF’s chief whip in parliament, said acting Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa should have presented the amendment to parliament Wednesday, but was instead in South Africa leading ZANU PF’s negotiating team.

A lawyer for the top opposition negotiator, Tendai Biti, asked a judge to postpone a hearing set for Wednesday in Biti’s treason trial because of the talks in South Africa.

Biti’s trial is one of a number of court cases the opposition says were trumped up to silence its members. The opposition has demanded that such harassment and worse against its supporters must stop to create the right conditions for power-sharing.

The opposition also had called for a fairer distribution of Cabinet and other government posts after Mugabe unilaterally declared the most powerful positions will be filled by ZANU PF members.

Mugabe’s party and leaders of neighboring countries have said the opposition should first enter the government, then resolve outstanding issues. The opposition has largely bowed to that, but wants to ensure its concerns are not ignored.

The opposition said Tuesday that it had been told by ZANU PF officials that they could not take part in meetings meant to fine-tune the unity government agreement “because they have no mandate from (Mugabe) who is attending the AU summit in Ethiopia.”

ZANU PF’s Chinamasa insisted Tuesday that discussions were on track. Mugabe, in a speech at the African Union on Tuesday, said he was committed to forming the unity government.

On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told journalists in Addis Ababa that Zimbabwe’s newly forged national unity government was an “imperfect” solution, and that it can only resolve the country’s political crisis if Mugabe made further progress. Ban also urged Mugabe to release political prisoners being held in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has been in a political crisis since Tsvangirai won the most votes in a March presidential election. Tsvangirai withdrew from a June runoff against Mugabe because of state-sponsored violence against opposition supporters.

The deadlock has kept leaders from addressing a spiraling economic crisis many blame on Mugabe, widespread poverty and food shortages, and a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3,300 people since August.

(Source)

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, will have the power to dismiss his arch-opponent from a government of national unity even though the two men have agreed to join forces in an effort to rescue the country’s ruined economy. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who will become prime minister, could be sacked for incompetence under the terms of a deal that leaves the 84-year-old president firmly in control. There were mixed reactions to the deal in Zimbabwe. Some feared Mugabe would use Tsvangirai, 56, to extend his power. Others felt that the opposition leader would neutralise the president. One opposition sympathiser said she was “hoping for the best but preparing for the worst”. Many nonetheless applauded the opposition’s decision, hoping that a unity government would unlock overseas aid, which is needed to rebuild the shattered country.

Western diplomats in Harare pointed out that development aid hinges on economic and political reform and Mugabe’s long history of reneging on commitments holds out little promise of change. The United States and Britain, Zimbabwe’s biggest aid donors, are unhappy that the deal leaves Mugabe in charge of security and the military and that he re-appointed Gideon Gono as head of the central bank, where Gono has presided over hyperinflation and monetary collapse. Britain provides £40m of emergency aid each year to Zimbabwe. That could be increased to £200m overnight if it is decided that Tsvangirai’s premiership will bring progressive government. One difficulty is that Britain and the US stated publicly in December that any government in which Mugabe served was unacceptable. British ministers now have a dilemma - do they eat their words and give aid, or do they deny Tsvangirai the assistance that he and Zimbabwe require? Britain’s decision is likely to influence other European donor nations. The US is in a less difficult position since President Barack Obama would not consider himself bound by President George W Bush’s officials.

The need for aid is acute. Zimbabwe is fighting a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3,100 and made more than 60,000 ill since August. The collapse of the health and sanitation infrastructure had made it impossible to bring the disease under control. In addition 80% of the population need food aid. The power-sharing arrangement will be fragile, at best. Half the new government ministers will be from Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, which led Zimbabwe to its plight. Tsvangirai’s authority will be severely restricted: Mugabe will chair the cabinet; Tsvangirai will chair a council of ministers. Analysts said it was difficult to imagine such a divided government taking the steps that the crisis called for. One particularly unhappy feature for the opposition is its failure to win control of the police. Under the deal it will share responsibility for the interior ministry with Zanu PF, an arrangement many see as unworkable. Mugabe retains control of the military and intelligence ministries.

Nonetheless, Tsvangirai won his party’s reluctant backing for the coalition at the MDC’s national council on Friday after coming under pressure from southern African leaders. His predicament was reflected in his statement that “this government will serve as a transitional authority leading to free and fair elections”. Mugabe has never acknowledged that the unity government is a transitional entity and considers himself president for a full term of office. One fear is that Mugabe will use the government to smash the opposition, which has been severely weakened by intimidation and internal rivalry. Tsvangirai will also have to manage without his adviser, Tendai Biti, who opposes the unity government and will not join it. Biti, 42, is in danger of being jailed on Wednesday, when politically motivated treason charges against him are likely to be revived.

(Source)