Mugabe, Tsvangirai in private meeting

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Posted to the web: 23/01/2009 22:25:11
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe met opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai in a private meeting on Thursday, just four days after the two leaders failed to agree on a power sharing government during a meeting with regional leaders, New Zimbabwe.com has learnt.

An extraordinary summit of the regional trade bloc SADC has been called for South Africa on Monday during which regional leaders will make one more attempt to push the two leaders to implement a September 15 power sharing agreement which has stalled over disagreements on cabinet posts.

Sources say the two leaders met at the behest of Tsvangirai, the leader of one of two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations. Arthur Mutambara, who leads a smaller faction of the MDC, was not at the meeting.

Mugabe, sources say, initially refused to meet Tsvangirai citing their sharp differences at Monday's meeting in which the two remained entrenched in their demands leading Mutambara to say their positions are “untenable”.

The meeting, sources said, only became possible after Mugabe was asked by South African President Kgalema Montlanthe to relent.

It was not immediately clear what the outcome of the meeting was, although major concessions will have to be made by Mugabe to reconcile his differences with Tsvangirai.

"What is of note,” a source told this website, “is the fact that in the past when they have met for private meetings, they barely last 20 minutes owing to their sharp differences. The exception was perhaps their first private meeting soon after the signing of the power sharing agreement. On Thursday they met for more than an hour which shows how much ground they must have covered between themselves.”

Tsvangirai said Wednesday that he was hopeful that Monday's summit will broker an agreement, although political commentators say that appears unlikely. They agree, however, that if the summit fails to get the parties to share power, Mugabe may seek SADC approval to go ahead and form a government.
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