SADC troika recommends Home Affairs ministry rotation

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Posted to the web: 28/10/2008 11:43:04
THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) Troika -- the regional trade bloc’s organ on politics, defence and security -- which met in Harare on Monday has recommended a complex “cooperative management” of the Home Affairs ministry which is the stumbling block to the formation of a power sharing government.

The Harare summit also attended by President Robert Mugabe and his opposition rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara came unstuck over who controls the ministry – with both Mugabe and Tsvangirai laying claim to it as they have done for several weeks.

Mugabe, however, was said to be amiable to a rotating sharing of the ministry while Tsvangirai wanted it to be one of 13 ministries that will be under the control of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party faction in an envisaged new government.

In a communiqué issued on Tuesday, the SADC Troika said it “noted the progress made so far regarding allocation on ministries and that there is convergence between the parties with respect to cooperative management of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Summit thereafter strongly encourages the parties to pursue this option.”

Tomas Salomao, executive secretary of the 14-member SADC, said at a news conference on Tuesday that control of the Home Affairs ministry – accused in widespread attacks on the opposition - was the main sticking point.

Salamao said the troika -- made up of the leaders from Angola, Mozambique and Swaziland -- recommended “the holding of a full SADC summit to further review the current political situation in Zimbabwe as a matter of urgency”. A date and place were not immediately set.

Salomao said the planned extraordinary summit would consider the recommendation that the ministry be rotated, with the two main parties - Mugabe’s Zanu PF and Tsvangirai’s MDC – holding it for six months or a year. The MDC bitterly opposes the arrangement.

A deal signed on September 15 has stalled over how to share the Home Affairs ministry under which the police force falls.

Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, of trying to hold on to too many of the most powerful posts. Mugabe, meanwhile, charges his rival with trying to frustrate the process while inviting United Nations intervention – a move said to be favoured by western countries.

An agreement in Zimbabwe would allow politicians to turn their attention to the nation’s economic meltdown, which has led to chronic shortages of food, gasoline and most basic goods; daily outages of power and water; and the collapse of health and education services.

Zimbabweans are struggling with the world’s highest official inflation rate of 231 million per cent. The United Nations predicts half the population will need food aid by next year.

On Sunday the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights called for urgent action to repair water and sewage systems to avert a cholera epidemic in upcoming seasonal rains.

It reported at least 120 preventable deaths across the county this year from cholera. At least 27 people have died in the past month.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "remains distressed" over the human cost of the stalemate, a U.N. statement said.

"He is deeply concerned that the population of Zimbabwe in both rural and urban areas faces many challenges, including critical shortages of all food, essential drugs, basic services, and clean water," said the statement.

"It is urgent to resolve the ongoing political impasse so that recovery can begin."

Asked what would happen if the planned summit failed to secure a breakthrough, SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salamao told reporters: "I can assure you that we will reach an agreement so that option is not relevant."

But analysts say the failure of Mugabe and Tsvangirai to agree even on cabinet posts bodes ill for a unity government, even if the SADC summit pressures them into a deal.

"We don't expect much from SADC if SADC does not flex its muscle and put pressure on them to reach a compromise," said Lovemore Madhuku, of the National Constitutional Assembly pressure group.

"Both groups are changing goal-posts and one wonders why they signed the agreement," he told AFP. "We are not very hopeful." - Staff Reporter/Reuters/AFP
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