Weekend GPA talks planned

By Tichaona Sibanda
19 November 2009

A top official from the mainstream MDC on Thursday said there were doubts Robert Mugabe would implement the Global Political Agreement, even if party negotiators manage to strike a deal.

Negotiators from the three parties are due to meet at a secret venue from Friday and throughout the weekend for talks aimed at dealing with the matters brought on the table through theSADC Troika summit that met in Maputo two weeks ago.

The agenda for the negotiations was set last week Friday during a meeting held between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.

On Monday Tsvangirai urged party negotiators to the GPA to speed up the discussions to end the deadlock over unresolved issues. Talks between the MDC and ZANU PF seem unable to move beyond the starting blocks, because of pre-negotiation manoeuvring over positions and agendas.

Although still voicing hope that SADC’s involvement this time will yield a breakthrough, the senior MDC official told us their reading of the situation was that Mugabe would make no major concessions to Tsvangirai.

‘We strongly believe that Zuma’s personal involvement and SADC’s sense of urgency would produce results. There could be a breakthrough this coming week, but we doubt Mugabe will implement anything before his party’s congress,’ the official said.

Some of the remaining issues in the GPA are around ambassadors and provincial governors. At the moment it looks as though mbassadors from the MDC will take up their roles at the various foreign missions from mid December. Provincial governors may be appointed in December, but well after the ZANU PF congress.

‘To be frank, Mugabe is giving himself breathing space. We will see a lot of politicking between now and the ZANU PF congress. But after that I can assure you, things will move at a faster pace than now,’ our source said.

The negotiators are expected to compile a report, which will first be handed to the principals before it can be forwarded to the facilitator Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa.

It is still unclear what the situation is around the MDC-M negotiators, who have been out of the country and delaying the current discussions.