Zimbabwe talks to finish on Thursday

Zimbabwe talks to finish on Thursday

HISTORIC: The moment Arthur Mutambara, Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai shook on a Memorandum of Understanding which set the stage for the inter-party talks to resume

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By Mduduzi Mathuthu

A CROSS-PARTY negotiating team charting Zimbabwe’s political future in Pretoria, South Africa, was winding down its discussions on Wednesday and expected to return home with a draft agreement on a power-sharing government on Thursday, New Zimbabwe.com has learnt.

The developments come exactly two weeks after teams of negotiators from the ruling Zanu PF and the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opened talks on a transitional government following President Robert Mugabe's disputed reelection for a sixth term on June 27.

A source close to the negotiations told New Zimbabwe.com: “What they set out to do (the negotiators) is finished. There are a few issues, minor issues, that they need to take back to their principals in Zimbabwe, but a draft is in place.”

The source said it “would not be necessary to return to Pretoria as the minor outstanding issues can be resolved in Zimbabwe”.

The developments come as a South African newspaper reported Wednesday that it had obtained a copy of the draft agreement. But New Zimbabwe.com sources said the purpoted draft agreement was a leaked "position document" for the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai, and not the outcome of the negotiations.

According to the Star newspaper, President Robert Mugabe would have amnesty from prosecution and would remain president, but with diminished powers, and would be honoured as "founding president" upon his retirement after the transitional government ends. Tsvangirai would run the country as executive prime minister and appoint two deputies, including one from his own party and another from Zanu PF.

The transitional government would be in place temporarily and lead to fresh elections, according to the paper.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, the African Union and Southern African Development Community (SADC) mediator between the Zimbabwe parties was set to travel to Zimbabwe -- his third trip in as many weeks -- on Thursday or Friday hoping to cajole Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara into affirming the draft agreement.

Mbeki is under pressure to strike a deal before an August 16 SADC summit which South Africa is hosting.

Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara signed a historic memorandum of understanding in Harare on July 21 which paved the way for the power-sharing talks aimed at resolving the country's decade-long political crisis.

Negotiators went into power-sharing talks at a secret location in Pretoria shortly after that historic event, working on an intense two-week deadline to reach agreement.

The negotiators -- Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche (Zanu PF); Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma (MDC-Tsvangirai) and Welshman Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi (MDC-Mutambara) -- took a four-day break last week to update their leaders on the progress of the talks which sources say have been hitch-free.

In a crisis spanning a decade, Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedent economic collapse, with inflation topping 2,2 million percent. Frayed relations between leaders of the major political parties have spawned political extremism which has descended into violence, driving millions of Zimbabweans into exile.

A power-sharing deal, the leaders hope, will spark Zimbabwe's economic revival and re-establish it as a regional powerhouse leading up to a new round of elections -- possibly in the next three years.
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