PATRICK CHINAMASA . . . Tsvangirai should simply append his signature to the deal on the table

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF party has rejected calls by African Union chair, Tanzania, that executive power should be split equally between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a government of national unity.

Patrick Chinamasa, ZANU PF’s chief negotiator in power-sharing talks with Tsvangirai’s MDC party said the ruling party would not agree to cede more power to Tsvangirai than what the opposition leader has already been offered under a deal endorsed by southern African leaders.

Chinamasa said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had since adopted a framework of a deal Zimbabwe’s rival political leaders agreed to a month ago, before Tsvangirai declined to sign it on the eleventh hour.

“SADC endorsed the framework of the deal and that is what Tsvangirai should sign,” said Chinamasa, who is also Zimbabwe’s justice minister.

He added: “What powers should we cede to Tsvangirai when a deal was agreed to, only for him to renege after consulting outside forces. The party, government and SADC were satisfied with the powers Tsvangirai was going to enjoy as prime minister.”

A defiant Chinamasa said as far as the government was concerned there were no longer outstanding issues on the talks, except that Tsvangirai should simply append his signature to the deal on the table.

“Tanzania’s call is not derived from any SADC or African Union position. The two bodies mandated President Mbeki (Thabo, of South Africa) to come up with an inclusive government, they didn’t specify who should occupy what in that government,” Chinamasa said.

“It was left to the people of Zimbabwe to decide and they have done. We await Tsvangirai to see reason and sign the agreement,” he added.

According to the proposed deal, Mugabe was to remain executive president in charge of both state and government, while Tsvangirai would virtually be a ceremonial prime minister supposedly in charge of government policy but without power to hire or fire government ministers, while he would also not chair Cabinet meetings.

Tsvangirai, who under the stalled deal would be required to report regularly to Mugabe, refused to sign the deal saying he could not be prime minister without executive power.

In what appeared an endorsement of Tsvangirai’s demand for more power than accorded him under the proposed deal, the Tanzanian government said it wanted to see a 50-50 power-sharing deal agreed to in Zimbabwe to stem the country’s growing economic crisis.

"There is a problem and we still hope the mediation will continue and we still hope wisdom will prevail," Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe told journalists in Dar es Salaam.

"We would prefer a solution be arrived at immediately because of the escalating economic crisis. We still pray that a solution will be found towards a 50 percent power-sharing solution," he said.

There were fresh attempts to break the deadlock in the Zimbabwe power-sharing talks when negotiators from ZANU PF and MDC separately met Mbeki in South Africa last weekend but there was no breakthrough over the issue of how to divide power between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Meanwhile the MDC welcomed Tanzania’s call for a review of the current deal on the table but said any power-sharing should be based on the March 29 presidential and parliamentary elections won by the opposition party and its leader, Tsvangirai.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said: “There is a realisation by Tanzania that the proposed deal was not fair, but I don’t want to comment on their 50-50 proposal, except to say we need an agreement that reflects the expressions of Zimbabweans on March 29.”

The MDC won 100 seats in March to end ZANU PF’s decades-long domination of the key House of Assembly. Mugabe’s party won 99 seats in the lower chamber while a breakaway faction of the MDC took 10 seats and an independent candidate took the remaining one seat.

ZANU PF however retained control of the upper House of Senate giving Mugabe’s party powers to block undesirable legislation and bills coming from the lower chamber.

Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a parallel presidential election in March but fell short of enough votes to avoid a run-off poll, which was won by Mugabe unopposed after Tsvangirai pulled out citing violence and intimidation against his supporters. – ZimOnline