HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has unilaterally allocated control of key ministries to his ZANU-PF, a state daily reported on Saturday, prompting condemnation from the opposition which has been in power-sharing talks with the party.
Citing a government gazette, a list published in The Herald gives Mugabe's party 14 ministries including the portfolios of defence, home and foreign affairs and justice as well as local government and media -- despite opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai calling in mediators over a talks stalemate.
The allocation would see Mugabe retain control of the army, police and other state security apparatus.
The Herald said Mugabe had allocated ministries "in terms of the agreement signed by the three parties".
Tsvangirai's MDC gets 13 ministries, among them constitutional and parliamentary affairs, economic planning and investment promotion, labour and social welfare, sport, arts and culture and science and technology development.
A splinter opposition grouping led by Arthur Mutambara will be in charge of education, regional integration and international co-operation and industry and commerce, the report added.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF signed an agreement on September 15 with Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mutambara's breakaway unit to form a unity government to tackle long-standing political and economic crises.
The paper said that the talks mediator, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, was expected in the country next week to resolve a dispute over the ministry of finance.
Tsvangirai declared a deadlock in the discussions with Mugabe over the allocation of key ministries and provincial governors and said nothing short of Mbeki's intervention would resolve the stalemate.
The three leaders met on Friday and agreed that there was a need for Mbeki to intervene.
Reacting to the announcement, an MDC spokesman said that the September 15 deal on power-sharing was in "jeopardy" following Mugabe's "contemptuous" decision.
"What we are seeing is arrogance on the part of ZANU-PF which will put the deal into jeopardy," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
Pouring scorn over Mugabe's breakdown of posts, Chamisa said Tsvangirai would not sign up to such a government.
"That list does not and will not have the endorsement of the MDC. This is unilateral, contemptuous and outrageous.
"They (ZANU-PF) are taking the people of Zimbabwe for a ride. Just yesterday the principals met and agreed there is a deadlock.
"There is a deadlock and it can only be broken through SADC," he said, referring to the Southern African Development Community and its appointed mediator, Mbeki
"If you look at the list it's as good as running the government by themselves," Chamisa added.
The sides have met several times with the MDC arguing that it should take the lion's share of power as it won most votes in a first round of elections in March. Tsvangirai pulled out of the second round after mounting violence against his supporters.
Mbeki, who was toppled as South African president last month, has been widely accused in the past of being too soft on Mugabe, 84, who has led the former British colony uninterrupted since independence in 1980.
However the MDC, which at one stage called for Mbeki to replaced, now sees him as a key to persuading Mugabe and his cohorts to release their grip on power.
Once hailed as a model economy and a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe's fortunes have nosedived since 2000 when Mugabe seized white-owned farms and handed them over to landless blacks, often with no farming skills.
But the government blames the country's economic woes on sanctions imposed by Britain and its allies after he allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election.
The African nation is also suffering from foreign exchange fuel and food shortages.
Zimbabwe's inflation rate soared to 231 million percent in July, the world's highest.
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