Tsvangirai not backtracking from threat to quit talks

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• Text: statement by South Africa cabinet on Zimbabwe

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By Staff Reporter
Posted to the web: 02/01/2009 15:22:11
THE Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)’s national council will meet soon to decide the fate of a power sharing agreement signed between President Robert Mugabe and his opposition rivals, but which now teeters on the brink of collapse, a party spokesman said Friday.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main faction of the MDC, had given Mugabe’s government an ultimatum to release 42 activists said abducted by security forces by January 1 or face the threat of an MDC pull-out from talks to formulate a unity government.

The deadline passed with most of the activists having been brought to court, but still held in prison, their lawyers say in defiance of court orders.

Nelson Chamisa said Tsvangirai was “not backtracking” from his threat.

Chamisa said: “There appears to be a deliberate distortion of Mr Tsvangirai’s position on this. Having been concerned by the abductions of our members, Mr Tsvangirai indicated that if these activists were not brought to court or released, the national council would convene under the circumstances and deliberate on what’s going to be done.

“We now have a new development in the form of Zanu PF’s defiance of court orders and their general stubbornness. What Mr Tsvangirai was saying therefore is that these issues will be handed over to our decision making body to give the leadership direction… the national council will make a helicopter assessment of the state of affairs.”

Of the 42 activists that Tsvangirai wanted released, Chamisa said only 34 had been accounted for or been brought to court.

“Quite clearly, there is a substantial number not accounted for and Tsvangirai will soon make a specific recommendation to the national council which may lead to a resolution on where we go from here.”

Chamisa said the MDC was still committed to the power sharing agreement signed between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and his MDC rival Arthur Mutambara, but accused Zanu PF of lacking in “sincerity” to implement the pact.

“We have given a lot to the process,” he said. “The Bible says blessed is the hand that giveth than receiveth, but the hand that’s receiveth is getting away with murder. Our sincerity is not being reciprocated by Zanu PF.”

At the centre of the stand-off between Mugabe’s Zanu PF and Tsvangirai’s MDC is how the parties will share ministries in the envisaged unity government to run the country for a five-year period. The MDC says Zanu PF wants to hang on to all the “key” posts.

Tsvangirai has rejected a compromise solution proffered by regional leaders and has faced Zanu PF accusations that he is stalling on the instructions of powerful Western nations, particularly Britain and America, who have said they don’t support the unity government.

Tsvangirai has been out of the country since November 9 when he attended a regional summit in South Africa. New Zimbabwe.com understands the MDC leader, who is currently in South Africa, will be returning to Zimbabwe “in a matter of days”.

Chamisa, when pressed on the matter, said: “His coming will not be Nicodemus. You will know.”
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