News

Zim coalition parties resume talks today

November 16, 2009 Edition 1

Zimbabwe's partners in the coalition government, the Movement for Democratic Change and Zanu-PF, meet in Harare today for make or break negotiations.

Regional leaders had given the leaders until December 5 to resolve the crisis.

Nine months into the inclusive government, President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are still haggling over outstanding issues from the fragile Global Political Agreement which brought about the coalition government.

The impasse between Mugabe and Tsvangirai exploded last month when the MDC temporarily pulled out of the government, leaving it paralysed and in a constitutional crisis.

This forced the guarantors to the unity deal - the Southern African Development Community - to intervene and on November 5 they gave Tsvangirai and Mugabe between 15 and 30 days to make sure that they implemented the outstanding issues.

President Jacob Zuma was expected to visit Zimbabwe on December 6 to assess if they had resolved the problem. He was assigned by SADC to facilitate the implementation of the deal.

MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said the parties had no option but to fully implement what they agreed when the agreement was signed.

Efforts to get a comment from the Zanu-PF spokesmen and the negotiators were in vain. - Mercury Foreign Service