HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe's top lieutenant fired a warning shot on Sunday against any bid by southern African leaders involved in an ailing power-sharing deal, to impose a solution on rival parties.
In comments published on the eve of a key meeting in Swaziland, the veteran president's chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa said that while Zimbabwe's neighbours should only issue "guidance" on how to end a weeks-long impasse.
"Delegations from the three parties will be called upon to clarify any issues," Chinamasa said of the talks from Monday in Swaziland being overseen by the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) security troika.
"After this the troika will guide us on the way forward," Chinamasa told the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper.
"They can't impose anything on us especially on such a small matter as the allocation of ministries."
The leaders of the three-nation security panel -- Swaziland, Angola and Mozambique -- will meet with Mugabe and his opposition rivals, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, amid warnings that a power-sharing pact signed over a month ago is on the verge of collapse.
The pact has reached a deadlock over the allocation of key ministries and mediator Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's former president, will brief the troika's leaders on the status of negotiations.
The allocation of key ministries in the formation of a unity government has remained a sticking point for over a month after the agreement was signed.
Movement for Democratic Change leader Tsvangirai threatened to pull out of the deal after Mugabe last week unilaterally awarded the most important ministries to his party, leaving himself in charge of the military and police.
Mbeki, who brokered the pact, was called in to mediate and after four days of lengthy negotiations parties failed to reach agreement.
The rival parties approached the SADC to assist in the stalemate over the allocation of the defence, home affairs, finance and local government ministries.
Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara, leader of an MDC breakaway faction, signed an agreement on September 15 aimed at forming a power-sharing government.
That government was expected to ease political tensions and tackle the country's economic crisis which has not shown any signs of abating, with annual inflation officially at 231 million percent.
"The reason we are going to SADC is we want the deal to work. We are hopeful that something positive will come from the SADC meeting on Monday," Tsvangirai said Saturday.
The agreement facilitated by Mbeki called for 84-year-old Mugabe to remain as president while Tsvangirai takes the new post of prime minister, with cabinet posts being shared out.
An editorial in the Sunday Mail called for a government to be formed this week "whether inclusive or not" as Zimbabwe remained in a state of paralysis as parties fail to agree on government positions.
"Most civil servants are now loitering like sheep without a shepherd. The result has been a further deterioration in service delivery. Everything is in a state of paralysis," read the editorial.
South African foreign ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said Mbeki would brief the meeting efforts to resolve Zimbabwe's crisis "with specific reference to current negotiations to form a new government."
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a first round presidential vote in March, when the MDC also forced the ZANU-PF into the minority in parliament for the first time.
But the former union leader failed to win enough votes for an outright victory and then pulled out of the run-off in June, accusing the regime of coordinating a brutal campaign of violence that left scores of his supporters dead.
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