JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South Africa's former president Thabo Mbeki has agreed to resume his mediation in neighbouring Zimbabwe's political crisis, a spokesman for the government in Pretoria said Friday.
Mbeki had agreed to resume his mediation after talks with South Africa's new President Kgalema Motlanthe, government spokesman Thabang Chiloane told AFP.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had called for Mbeki to mediate in power-sharing talks with President Robert Mugabe, which have stalled over disputes on how to divide key ministries in a unity government.
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party has insisted that no outside mediation is needed in the dispute, which is believed to centre on control of the defence, home affairs, state security and finance ministries.
But two senior Western diplomats in South Africa told AFP that at least one Mbeki aide could travel to Harare this weekend to discuss the situation in a move to push forward the talks.
"Former president Thabo Mbeki's legal adviser Mojanku Gumbi will be in Harare this weekend ... to talk to the political actors," one diplomat said, on condition of anonymity.
Mbeki's spokesman said Friday that so far no one on the mediation team had left for Zimbabwe.
"I have no idea of talks resuming in Harare," spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said.
Mbeki, whose party last month forced him to resign in a separate power struggle, mediated the deal between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to form a unity government.
The agreement signed September 15 had been hailed as a breakthrough in Zimbabwe's political crisis, sparked after Mugabe lost a first round of elections in March.
Under the arrangement, 84-year-old Mugabe -- who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980 -- would remain as president with Tsvangirai in the new post of prime minister.
Negotiations have bogged down on forming a cabinet, with Tsvangirai's MDC claiming that Mugabe wants to retain key posts, effectively reducing his party to a junior partner.
Mugabe said Monday that a cabinet would be announced by the end of the week, but negotiations now appear set drag out even longer.
Meanwhile ordinary Zimbabweans are struggling to survive against hyperinflation estimated at 11.2 million percent, which has devastated a country once among the most prosperous in Africa.
Nearly a decade of economic collapse has left 80 percent of the population in poverty, with millions of people dependent on international food aid.
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