Mugabe makes it clear to Zuma he is not sharing power

By Tichaona Sibanda
31 March 2010

Robert Mugabe has reportedly said he will not appoint provincial governors from the MDC, as they may not be loyal to him. He has also dug in his heels and said that Attorney-General Johannes Tomana and central bank boss Gideon Gono are going nowhere.

The ZANU PF leader is said to have told all this to South African President Jacob Zuma two weeks ago, also reiterating that he will not appoint Roy Bennett, the MDC treasurer-general, to the agriculture portfolio or any other ministerial post. The comments were made during a private meeting Mugabe had with President Zuma in Harare.

Yet another clear indication that the latest talks can go nowhere as Mugabe has no intention of sharing power.

The revelation about these comments was told to a Zimbabwe delegation during a meeting with senior officials in South Africa’s department of International Relations and Cooperation (formerly the Foreign Affairs Ministry).

On Monday the delegation, under the banner of the Global Zimbabwe Forum, met with officials from the coordinating office for Zimbabwe in Pretoria. This office was established by former President Thabo Mbeki in 2007 to help Zimbabwean groups interact with that government on issues of concern to them.

Luke Zunga, spokesman for the group, said the South Africans also revealed they were disheartened by the lack of progress in the Global Political Agreement talks.

As Zuma was told directly by Mugabe that he would not fully implement the GPA it’s unclear how a positive spin was put on his visit two weeks ago.

In this latest round of talks inititated by Zuma, the negotiators missed the Monday deadline to end discussions and are almost certain to miss Wednesday’s deadline to present a report to President Zuma.

It is expected that negotiators will still present a report to Zuma at some time in the near future, detailing how once again the talks are deadlocked. Zuma would then be expected to meet SADC troika chairman, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, on how to deal with the situation.

While it was never confirmed, reports suggested Zuma had managed to push the political rivals to bridge their differences on some of the contentious issues, giving the impression that he had secured an elusive breakthrough in the talks.

Zunga said; ‘What we interpret from the discussions we had in Pretoria is that there is no progress in these talks. In fact the South Africans expressed deep concern to all the three parties for lack of movement to conclude the negotiations.’

He added that it was clear Mugabe and ZANU PF were the stumbling blocks in efforts to bring real change to Zimbabwe. He said it also proves that South Africa is being ineffective in dealing with the crisis.

‘In Zimbabwe the President’s powerbase in the provinces is anchored on the governors. So when he told Zuma that governors from the MDC might not be loyal to him he feared his power will be eroded once he appoints them,’ Zunga said.

On Wednesday Prime Minister Tsvangirai said the SADC regional bloc should intervene and convene an emergency summit on Zimbabwe, in the event that negotiations to resolve the country’s political dispute yielded nothing after Wednesday’s deadline. ‘If this situation continues, I will ask President Zuma to call upon SADC to break the deadlock once and for all. We cannot allow our nation to be trapped indefinitely by the failed policies of the past, while countries around us prioritise people’s rights, economic development and the rule of law,’ Tsvangirai said.