JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Zimbabwe's feuding politicians must form a government of national unity "immediately" if they want the support of the SADC, a leading official of the regional bloc warned Monday.
Tomaz Salomao, executive secretary of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), was speaking after a special summit called Sunday by the organisation failed to break the impasse on forming a unity government.
"We will be there to assist them, help them and try to bring them together but under one condition: the government of national unity has to be formed immediately," Salomao told South African public radio station SA FM.
"Now it is up to the three parties in Zimbabwe to decide how they want to proceed," he added.
"But what is important to note is we cannot afford to postpone the formation of the government of national unity," he said.
Salomao reiterated SADC's proposal of co-sharing the home affairs ministry between the ruling ZANU-PF and the main opposition MDC as a way out of the deadlock.
"And within six months, the parties are free to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the co-sharing. If they feel that that is not the best way, then they can decide on the best way to push it."
After 12 hours of closed-door talks, the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) failed to prod President Robert Mugabe into a compromise with opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Salomao rejected a suggestion that the SADC has reached the end of the road of mediation following Tsvangirai's rejection of the body's compromise proposal.
"We did not (reach the end of the road in mediation)," he said.
The summit's final communique called for the Zimbabwean rivals to form a unity government immediately and to share control of the disputed home affairs ministry, which oversees the police.
But Tsvangirai, who defeated Mugabe in the first-round of the presidential election in March, rejected their proposal as unworkable.
"This issue of co-sharing does not work. We have said so ourselves, we have rejected it, and that's the position," Tsvangirai told reporters.
Tsvangirai said his dispute with Mugabe was not only about the ministry of home affairs, but striking a fair balance of power in the unity government.
"It is about power sharing, it is about equitable power sharing, it is about giving the responsibility to the party that won an election and has compromised its position to share a government with a party that lost," he said.
"SADC approached this summit without any concrete strategy and did not have the courage and the decency to look Mr Mugabe in the eyes and tell him that his position was wrong," he said.
Under the unity accord signed on September 15 in Harare, 84-year-old Mugabe would remain as president while Tsvangirai would become prime minister.
Tsvangirai said he was still committed to the deal, but said he would not accept Mugabe's proposals for a cabinet that locks his MDC out of critical posts.
The formation of a government of national unity has been deadlocked over the distribution of key ministries, especially the Home Affairs, which oversees the police.
Tsvangirai has accused the Mugabe regime of orchestrating attacks against his supporters following his victory in the March election, when they were forced into a runoff after Tsvangirai fell short of an outright majority.
The opposition leader pulled out of the second round run-off in the presidential election because of the violence, which Amnesty International says has left 180 dead and 9,000 injured.
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