MEDIATOR . . . South African President Jacob Zuma

HARARE – South African President Jacob Zuma is expected to present a report on Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to the African Union (AU) Heads of States meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, officials said on Friday.

Zimbabwean strongman Mugabe is expected to attend the meeting which starts on Sunday ending on Tuesday .

Saul Molobi, spokesman for South Africa's International Relations Department said Zuma, who is Southern African Development Community (SADC) mediator in the talks between Mugabe's ZANU PF and Tsvangirai's MDC parties, will also brief the AU leadership of the meeting which was held in Maputo earlier this month to discuss the Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal.

"As the mediator in Zimbabwe President Jacob Zuma is expected give a report on the latest political developments in Zimbabwe and the outcomes of the SADC Summit held in Maputo on January 7 2010," Molobi said.

The Maputo meeting urged the parties to the country's power sharing deal to solve the outstanding issues and also discussed the problems rocking the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar and the problems in Lesotho.

The talks to resolve outstanding issues between ZANU PF and the MDC have dragged on since the former foes agreed to join hands last February in a coalition government that has been credited with stabilising the country’s economy to improve the lives of Zimbabweans.

The coalition partners last week called off negotiations, with the negotiators hinting that there was little prospect of the parties resolving anytime soon the outstanding issues holding back the unity government and threatening to render it ineffective.

Mugabe’s party insists it has played its part to uphold the 2008 power-sharing deal that gave birth to the coalition government. ZANU PF instead accuses its main rival MDC-T of reneging on promises to campaign for lifting of Western sanctions on Mugabe and his top allies.

On Wednesday ZANU PF ruled out making further concessions in the power-sharing talks until Western nations lift the sanctions, following disclosure by British foreign secretary David Miliband last week that London would lift the travel and financial sanctions on guidance from the MDC.

On its part the MDC-T – which has rejected suggestions by Zuma that it shelves some of its demands – accuses Mugabe of flouting the power-sharing pact after the veteran leader refused to rescind his unilateral appointment of two of his allies to the key posts of central bank governor and attorney general.

The former opposition is also unhappy that Mugabe is refusing to swear into government its treasurer Roy Bennett, while the veteran President has also refused to appoint MDC members as provincial governors.

The AU Summit convenes under the theme “Information and Communication Technologies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for the Future”. – ZimOnline