GPA talks doomed because of widening differences

By Tichaona Sibanda
16 February 2010

The SADC mediated Global Political Agreement talks between ZANU PF and the two MDC formations appear to be on the brink of collapse again, sources said on Tuesday.

The talks failed to take off once again on Monday but resumed on Tuesday evening, according to a senior MDC official who confirmed the talks had begun at a Harare hotel.

According to the sources, ZANU PF and the MDC-T will never shift their positions over the appointments of Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana as the Reserve Bank governor and Attorney-General.

The MDC-T is demanding that the appointments be reversed but ZANU PF insists that this will not happen. In light of this dispute, the MDC-T has said the negotiations, being held in Harare, will fail to come up with a compromise and want the talks declared a deadlock. They also want SADC to intervene.

A source told us on Tuesday that it was common knowledge that ZANU PF felt their hold on to power was hanging by a thread and were thus delaying the full implementation of the GPA. ‘ZANU is stalling, they are reluctant to implement the GPA because they know once they do that they will be half way down the home stretch to getting themselves out of power,’ our source said. The source also accused the MDC-M of playing ball with ZANU PF by prolonging the talks, in order to extend their time in government.

All along the MDC-M chief negotiator, Welshman Ncube, had maintained a ZANU PF stance that talks were making progress, only for him to admit this weekend that negotiators have failed to make any headway since the talks resumed last week.

‘Nothing is moving and it is useless for us to continue telling the nation that there is no progress while they are looking to us as government to deliver,’ Ncube reportedly told the Herald.

The state controlled newspaper reported on Tuesday that negotiations to thrash out remaining issues in the GPA would start in the evening in the capital, after stalling again on Monday when Welshman Ncube arrived late. Contrary to reports, attributed to Ncube, that talks on Monday were postponed due to the unavailability of Tendai Biti, all the other five negotiators did meet, except Ncube.

Ncube told journalists that the Finance Minister and chief negotiator from the MDC-T had traveled to Tunisia. But it turned out that Biti was in fact in Harare and went to the talks’ venue, only to leave two hours later after it became apparent that Ncube was going to be very late.

Biti told journalists in Harare that they had waited for their MDC colleague for two hours before deciding to defer the meeting. The six negotiators only resumed discussions last week after once again adjourning the talks in Janaury this year.

While the three principals, Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, have endorsed nominations for the media, human rights and electoral commissions, the government has yet to implement what has been agreed.

Luke Zunga, a leading economist based in South Africa, told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that Zimbabweans should demand that the government put an end to the political uncertainty by fully disclosing the state of the talks. The endless inter-party talks have been ongoing for the last two years now.

Zunga said a year since the formation of the transitional, power-sharing government, the political rivals have done little to institute promised major political reforms.

‘The leaders in government should ensure that the country embraces progressive and sustainable change. If not, the country risks sliding back into a political mess. In this environment of uncertainty there is no way that economic activity will bolster or blossom because nobody can make a proper plan when they don’t know what is likely to happen,’ Zunga said.