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By Tichaona Sibanda
10 December 2009
Negotiations to resolve outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement are still far from over, amid reports the three principals will next week announce what has been agreed to so far.
The three parties to the GPA contend that negotiations to resolve their differences are very complex, and ‘discussing them in public would only weaken their positions’ in the talks.
Negotiations broke off on Tuesday without achieving a breakthrough despite indications from both ZANU PF and the MDC that there was some ‘small movement’ in the last two weeks. The announcement next week is also expected to include details of how the talks will proceed from this stage onwards.
Once again Zimbabweans, whose lives are going to be affected by decisions reached, are not allowed to know what’s going on, as the negotiators have established their own ground rules and blocked any access to information. But SW Radio Africa is reliably informed discussions so far have only scratched the surface and have also been largely disappointing.
‘I don’t think there was progress on anything worth noting because their meetings have amounted to ‘a repetition of everything that has been said for the last two years,’ our source said.
The feuding politicians suspended talks Tuesday after producing a report that was presented to Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara. The report was also handed over to the South African facilitation team that was in the country on Monday. Lindiwe Zulu, one of the members of that team, told journalists in Harare that they would deliver the report to President Jacob Zuma.
The South African President will in turn consult SADC Troika chairman, Armando Guebuza. The Mozambican president will decide if the remaining issues need to be dealt with by a SADC summit.
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