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Mugabe sets talks deadline, to name Cabinet
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe looks set to move forward with forming a government if
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai does not sign a power-sharing deal
on Thursday.
"If after tomorrow (Thursday), Tsvangirai does not want to sign. We will certainly put together a cabinet. We feel frozen at the moment," Thursday's edition of the state-run Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying on his return from Zambia late Wednesday.
Power sharing talks between Mugabe and Tsvagirai, who heads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were deadlocked in mid-August over Mugabe's desire to retain executive authority, the opposition says.
Mugabe was all set to name his cabinet last week, but was persuaded by Mbeki and a smaller MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara to delay it for at least a week while the South African leader made last ditch attempts to revive the negotiations, which failed.
"We are a government and we are government that is empowered by elections. We should form a cabinet. We would not allow a situation where we will not have a cabinet forever," Mugabe said.
He accused Tsvangirai of stalling on the orders of the British government, which he said was not keen to see an agreement.
He said: “We know that it is the British government behind it. It is the British government, which does not want an agreement, and as long as they do not want it, he (Tsvangirai) will not sign.
"They want the sanctions to continue to punish us into an agreement with them. It is the land question, and all this talk about democracy is nonsense.”
Media reports said Mbeki was expected in Zimbabwe on Thursday as part of the negotiations, but his spokesman denied the reports.
"The president is not going to Zimbabwe," Mbeki spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said, adding however that the power-sharing talks were continuing.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa also said that he was not aware of anything planned for Thursday in Harare.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai put aside their differences briefly on Wednesday when they both attended the funeral of Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa in Lusaka.
According South African daily Business Day, Mbeki, who was also at the service, spoke with the Zimbabwean rivals there.
An earlier power-sharing deal put forward under Mbeki proposed that Tsvangirai become prime minister and Mugabe retain the presidency in an inclusive government.
But Tsvagirai said Wednesday that he had rejected the deal because Mugabe would keep his control on the main levers of power – including cabinet – while he was relegated to a “ceremonial Prime Minister”.
On Thursday the MDC stressed that it would not react to Mugabe's apparent ultimatum.
"Zanu PF are trying to force us to swallow poison, we are not going to sign anything that does not put the people of Zimbabwe first," spokesman Chamisa told AFP.
"Mugabe must be prepared to give some of his powers to Tsvangirai. This is the last chance for Mugabe to see the light for the people of Zimbabwe as he has not shown any form of seriousness to give up some of his powers.”
Zimbabwe's crisis intensified after Mugabe's re-election in a widely condemned June presidential run-off in which Tsvangirai pulled out of five days before voting. His name was kept on the ballot paper though, and Mugabe was declared winner with 85.5 percent of the vote.
Tsvangirai had finished ahead of Mugabe in the March first round, but pulled out of the run-off citing rising violence against his supporters.
Power-sharing talks
began after both sides signed a memorandum of understanding on July
21. - Staff Reporter/AFP
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