Zimbabwe talks deadlocked over executive power: Tsvangirai
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Zimbabwe's power-sharing talks deadlocked over President Robert Mugabe's desire to retain control of the country's security forces, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Wednesday.
"The talks deadlocked about a week ago after the (SADC) summit on the fundamental issue of executive authority," Tsvangirai told independent Talk Radio 702 in his first in-depth interview on why the talks stalled.
A power-sharing deal put forward under mediator South African President Thabo Mbeki proposed that Tsvangirai become prime minister and that Mugabe retain the presidency in an inclusive government.
"But in this case," said Tsvangirai, "there was an attempt to fragment the cabinet, with some ministers reporting to the president and some ministers reporting to the prime minister."
The deal would have seen economic and social ministries report to the prime minister and security ministries answering to the president, including the army and police which Tsvangirai said Mugabe had used to "brutalise" people.
"The maintenance of that status quo does not illustrate an desire to dilute his power to the extent these institutions are state institutions and not party's," he added.
The MDC leader said there had to be a "demonstrable willingness" on the part of the ruling ZANU-PF, in power for nearly three decades, on a paradigm shift.
"If it remains in the mindset that they are offering the MDC, I think it is a wrong context because the MDC won the election. In terms of the will of the people, we are ones who are offering ZANU-PF," he said.
"So far, I have not seen any move on the part of ZANU-PF. We have conceded a lot as MDC (Movement for Democratic Change)."
Tsvangirai said his reservations had resonated with the expectations of the country and that an adequate deal would have made the March 29 elections, when the MDC won the majority vote, futile.
The opposition leader added that Mbeki had said there were "sufficient grounds" for the proposal to be signed but that "he (Mbeki) is not the one who is going to sign".
"I am going to be held accountable to the people. We are very conscious of our responsibility, of the burden of history, and we are not going to endorse something that does not resonate with the people."
Mugabe, 84, in power since independence in 1980, was re-elected in June in a one-man presidential run-off after Tsvangirai, victor in the first round, bowed out amid widespread electoral violence.
Tsvangirai said the MDC "won't be bothered" by Mugabe's threat last week to form cabinet made hours after the veteran leader was booed and heckled in the first opposition-led parliament since independence.
Such a cabinet would be dysfunctional, he said. "If there is no national or international confidence in that cabinet, what will he do with it? I think it will be a risky business on his part."
Tsvangirai said the MDC would have liked more pressure from the African Union and SADC to solve the problem.
"There was a time when African leaders thought they can manage the problem, because they were protecting Robert Mugabe. Now we have reached a stage where Mugabe now is part of the problem."
