MDC ministers to get back their portfolios

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Human Rights Watch: Zimbabwe’s transitional government a “sham”

ZimOnline – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has described Zimbabwe’s transitional government as a “sham”, saying Harare’s protracted year-long administration has not made any real progress in implementing much-needed political reforms.

HRW director for Africa Georgette Gagnon at the weekend said the power-sharing government has demonstrated little political will or capacity to enact meaningful changes to improve the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.

“The transitional power-sharing government is a sham . . . From a human rights perspective, nothing has changed for the better. Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF are still fully in control,” Gagnon said.

She accused parties to the global political agreement (GPA) of lack of seriousness in implementing provisions of the pact they signed in September 2008 which led to the formation of the inclusive government last February.

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Mugabe Strips Tsvangirai of Powers

Zimbabwe Situation – A fresh confrontation is looming in Zimbabwe’s shaky power sharing
government after President Robert Mugabe reportedly ordered all ministers to
stop reporting to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai but to the two Zanu PF
Vice-Presidents in a bid to demote the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader.

Highly placed government sources have told Radio VOP that the Mugabe issued
the directive through a memo written and signed by the country’s chief
secretary to the president and cabinet Misheck Sibanda last week.

The controversial directive by Mugabe, which goes against the Global
Political Agreement (GPA) which gave power to Tsvangirai, is likely to
escalate tensions in the transitional government following last week’s
collapse of talks between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations.

“The directive from Mugabe came as a surprise to us, and in the letter he
does not explain where he is getting the orders but it is clearly a Zanu PF
and Mugabe ploy to create problems in the unity government. It’s yet another
attempt by Mugabe to abuse his powers and ostracise the prime minister.

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Farming sector in ‘dire straits’ as invasions continue unabated

Zimbabwe’s farming sector is in “dire straits” despite the new power-sharing government, with invasions of white-run farms continuing unabated and major food shortages inevitable, a leading farmer said on Friday.

Deon Theron, vice-president of the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents the few white farmers left, also poured scorn on official predictions of large jumps in output of key crops such as maize and wheat in 2009.

He said the farm sector was being talked up in an attempt to persuade foreign donors to loosen their purse strings.

In many cases, forecasts were four times the reality, Theron said, since commercial farmers were being physically prevented from planting crops and banks were refusing to grant loans because they could not trust land deeds as collateral.

“It’s a joke. It’s ridiculous,” Theron told Reuters in an interview in Johannesburg. “I find it incredible that those kind of figures could be put out. They’re not even close.”

Zimbabwe, once the breakbasket of southern Africa, has recorded a consistent decline in its staple maize crop since 2000, when President Robert Mugabe’s government began seizing white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.

Farms that escaped repossession have also suffered shortages of seed and fertiliser, making Zimbabwe reliant on imports and food aid since 2002. Aid groups have said up to 7 million people — more than half the population — may need food aid this year.

However, state media said this month the country would produce 1.2 million tonnes of maize this season, more than double last year’s crop.

Theron said the more likely figure was 400,000 tonnes — compared to a national requirement of 2.2 million.

“Agricultural production is in dire straits despite what the government is saying,” said Theron.

The wheat crop was more likely to be 25,000 tonnes compared to 100,000 officially forecast and tobacco output was going to be a quarter of the 1.6 million tonnes projected.

Mugabe and political rival Morgan Tsvangirai joined a power-sharing administration in February and immediately started trying to raise the billions of dollars needed to rebuild an economy crippled by years of neglect and mismanagement.

Even though Tsvangirai said in March a new wave of farm invasions threatened $150 million of crops, Theron said Harare was glossing over the problems in the hope of convincing sceptical Western donors to get their cheque books out.

The farm invasions were, if anything, more frequent than before the joint government came to power, he said, leafing through a file of 60 incursions reported in April alone.

“It really is close to hoodwinking the international community into releasing funds by making them believe everything is fine on the agricultural front,” said Theron, who has had three farms repossessed since 2000.

“We’re an agriculture-based economy. If agriculture does not recover, Zimbabwe will not recover,” he said. (Reuters/Zimbabwe Mail)

Selling out in the name of power sharing

Daily Trust - The majority MDC opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has been sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe while his minority MDC faction leader, Arthur Mutambara has also been appointed the Deputy Prime Minister of the country in a power sharing agreement introduced by the House of Assembly and signed into law by the 84-year old Robert Mugabe, the President of the country. This process brings to some end the wrangling between different layers of the ruling class in Zimbabwe which started after the March 2008 presidential election. Then, the MDC leader and presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai had openly withdrawn from the presidential run-off, the first round of which he won, citing brazen violence and state terror through unwarranted arrests and detention against his party members.

While his reason for withdrawing from the elections were genuine, Tsvangirai, rather than start building grass root movement among the working and poor people, including the million of unemployed and the poor peasants, he preferred to hobnob with imperialism and its African lapdogs. This gave Mugabe the excuse to further attack the rank and file opposition members by portraying them as imperialist agents that want to cripple the country, more so that Mugabe is seen by a section of the population as an independence hero.

It is ironic that while Morgan Tsvangirai and his lieutenants in the Mugabe’s cabinet are now to live under the cozy and elitist environments and official perks, cases of the rank and file party members, many of whom are detained or traumatized – upon whose back Tsvangirai and his ilk rode to power – took the back seat in the final power sharing. This again shows the character of the capitalist oriented opposition in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai and the MDC top-shots have portrayed the power-sharing as a landmark despite the fact that power was not totally given to them. Also, the Southern African Development Commission (SADC) and the South African negotiator, Thabo Mbeki, have portrayed the power-sharing as an “African solution to African problems”. The ruling western imperialist governments like US, UK and France and the capitalist multilateral agencies such as United Nations, while raising concerns about Mugabe’s sincerity, have commended the power sharing process as a step towards ‘democracy’. However, these various instruments of imperialism are only interested in their selfish capitalist interests, and cared much less about the poor people.

The reality is that aside official perks and opportunity to serve as conduit pipe for imperialist plunder of the economy, the MDC cannot be said to have gained from the power sharing. Before the formalization of the power sharing, the two camps have agreed to five-point Global Political Agreement (GPA) which among others raised the demands for cutting the power of Mugabe and resolve human rights issues; but the power sharing has legitimized Mugabe’s terror and undemocratic power usurpation.

In the power sharing agreement, Mugabe is still made the executive president which makes him not a figurehead as is being postulated by the MDC but a major decision maker in the country. Also, while the oppositions have majority in the government’s cabinet, decision making is not by simple majority decision but through consensus which gives Mugabe veto over decision-making in the cabinet some vital appointments.

It can however be argued that since Mugabe was forced to agree to power sharing in the first instance, this in itself shows that Mugabe has been curtailed. This will be a superficial analysis. In the first instance, Mugabe and the ZANU-PF ruling clique (and its military backbone) desperately need the power sharing – or a façade of it – that will neutralize the growing opposition at home. It will be recalled that teachers, medical workers and civil servants are currently on strike in defence of their living standards. In the country, which last released inflation rate is more than 231 million percent, there is acute food scarcity while the currency has collapsed; the workers’ salaries could hardly take them to work talk much less of helping ensure survival.

Furthermore, the economic crisis that had seen tens of thousands  fleeing the country coupled with growing health concerns especially the outbreak of Cholera that had killed hundreds, can put pressures on pro-capitalist, pro-imperialism African rulers (many of whom get to and sustain themselves in power through brazen despotism or fraudulent electoral means) to isolate Mugabe. It is the summation of these points that have made the power sharing a lifeline for Mugabe rather than a curtailment. With the limited inclusion of MDC factions, Mugabe may hope to get economic and humanitarian supports from the international community and reduce tension. It may also afford Mugabe to neutralize political opposition. The power sharing rather than emboldening and building MDC’s strength, will give the Mugabe’s government and its ZANU-PF ruling clique, the opportunity to neutralize the opposition and ensure the continued existence in power of ZANU-PF ruling caste and its military backbone. This is the same way that Mugabe neutralized its former political adversary – ZAPU – when the latter joined force with Mugabe in a political alliance that led to the neutralization of ZAPU. With MDC commitment to neo-liberal capitalist policies of privatization, commercialization, retrenchment, etc, the MDC will be at some period isolated and lose its mass base. This is what Mugabe is looking and waiting for.

Imperialism’s hypocrisy is clearly manifested in the current issue of Zimbabwe. It is funny that the same imperialism especially Gordon Brown’s Britain and other European ruling class that condemned Mugabe and called for his removal for human rights violations and in fact placed embargos on Zimbabwe, which compounded the suffering of the Zimbabwean poor, is committed to the agreement and the power sharing process.

The Zimbabwe crisis also reflects the rottenness of African ruling classes. While many of African rulers claimed to be committed to “quiet diplomacy”, none of them could even clearly condemn Zimbabwe neither did they condemn western capitalist imperialisms’ role in the suffering of poor Zimbabweans. Those who condemned Mugabe either did so on behalf of imperialism (like Botwana’s president) or are themselves not different from Mugabe (like Angola’s Dos Santos).

The MDC’s involvement in the Mugabe’s government is a reflection of the fact that the poor people need an independent working class political alternative with a socialist orientation. Tsvangirai’s excuse that there is need for stability is unfounded and fraudulent. The same Tsvangirai fought for almost one year in order to secure most viable positions, especially finance ministry, in the cabinet. In actual fact, MDC and Tsvangirai’s interests, aside the crass struggle for power and official perks, only wants to satisfy the interests of imperialism.

This placed enormous tasks before the Zimbabwean working class activists to start to build a mass working poor political alternative. Of course, there may be some illusions in the power sharing for now, but political development will further show to the mass of people, the frauds of Mugabe’s anti-imperialist propaganda and MDC fake commitment to people’s welfare. The coming period will provide the working mass of people of Zimbabwe and indeed Africa (where neo-liberal capitalist has held sway) with the necessary lessons needed to build a political alternative for socialist-oriented revolution.

Ibrahim is of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. kmarx4live@yahoo.com

Southern African church leaders watch and wait on Zimbabwe power sharing

The past threatens the future of new government

By Tanonoka Joseph Whande

I am very tempted to hold my breath and cheer, wishing with every fiber of my existence that the Government of National Unity (GNU) to be consummated by dictator Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change on Wednesday will take hold and succeed.

Sadly, I am cursed with pessimism. Fear comes uninvited.

With all the odds staked against the success of this GNU, hope, remote and faint as it might be, lingers and flatters lazily about. It is hope forcibly born out of a desire to take a break from the daily suffering that has been the daily diet of Zimbabweans for decades.

Admittedly, there is never going to be a time again that I will ever think Robert Mugabe can do anything decent for the people of Zimbabwe.

The man gave himself almost 30 years to destroy everything in his path, like the fabled bull in a china shop.
He used the 30 years at the helm of a peaceful, prosperous country to convince the world of his character.
There was a chilling display of brutality.

There was an undisputed demonstration of economic incompetence and corruption.

We lived through human rights abuses that left us with so many of our compatriots dead and many more missing.
The word genocide was introduced into our lexicon.

Property rights were taken away from us and we lost property to our own government.
Our homes where bulldozed to the ground and others were set alight as our own government, our supposed protectors exposed our infants, the elderly and the infirm to the elements.

Millions of our compatriots were forced to flee the country of their birth to seek economic or political protection among strangers outsider our borders because our own government wanted to do them harm.

I find it ironic that I sit here in Gaborone, unwelcome in Zimbabwe and having left my mother country in a cloud of dust for simply pointing out to the leaders of my nation where they were going wrong, but now cannot go back home where Mengistu Haile Mariam, The Butcher of Addis, known to have killed more than 500 000 of his own people, is given sanctuary and sits and lives in comfort.

There is a fascinating disparity and an unsettling message in that Botswana gives me sanctuary as a result of only my disagreement with my government of Zimbabwe yet ZANU-PF also gives sanctuary to Mengistu for killing more people than it did itself.

Meanwhile, the so-called African leaders met during their endless and now meaningless summits in Addis Ababa and came out with the “election” of tyrant Muammar Gaddafi as Chairman of the African Union as the highlight of their Summit.

They also allowed themselves to be addressed by Mugabe who obliged by bombarding the hapless presidents with nonsense about his “impressive” record as president of Zimbabwe.

No wonder this same group of people can actually allow Gaddafi to “lead” Africa. God have mercy!
SADC forced the winners of an election to relinquish a clean mandate legitimately given to them by the people. For SADC’s sake this arrangement must succeed then SADC may, at least, claim that they achieved something.

But I am a worried soul even if I were to be drowned in a drum of optimism.
My greatest fear is that the presence of the MDC in this government, in which ZANU-PF clearly is dictating terms and direction, resuscitates Mugabe and strengthens his evil empire and brutality, ones he has never cared to hide from the world in 30 years.
The MDC’s presence in this government legitimizes Mugabe in the eyes of the world and the last thing we want to see now is Mugabe replenishing his strength because he never used it to protect Zimbabweans but to abuse them with it.
Zimbabwean soldiers went to “save” the government and people of Mozambique and came back home to brutalise Zimbabweans.
The Zimbabwean army went to DR Congo and saved Laurent Kabila and the Congolese people and came back home and shot Zimbabweans in Harare and Gweru, not to mention our university students.

I pray that this unity is temporary. I wish it could have been slated to last only a few hours because I feel terribly uneasy with an angel (figurative) who keeps following and asking the devil’s help to cross a river so that the angel may give comfort and assistance to people ravaged by that same devil. Can the angel do so without compromising himself?

I hope it is temporary. Zimbabweans had voted for a break with Mugabe and the opening of a new chapter. And got none.
It is my hope that the MDC people know something we do not know because they are obviously taking a very big risk on behalf of the nation, a risk that, should the GNU fail, will leave Mugabe in a stronger position than he was in before he “agreed” to the partnership.
As the contestants literally circle each other in the arena, sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies must remain firmly in place.

There should be no letting up and the pressure must be maintained or even tightened until both participants show a deliberate willingness to free the Zimbabwean people and to give back the people their freedom and protection.

If there is ever a time I hope to be wrong, Lord, let it be this very one because I do not believe this marriage of convenience will last nor will it solve the problem. There is too much at stake for both sides and compromise is going to be necessary.

Yet compromise is one thing the two camps are at pains to make.
I do not believe in this exercise at all, not because of Mr Tsvangirai but because of Robert Mugabe. My fear and reluctance are born from past and current experiences.
I was abused so much that I am afraid to hope.

And yet hope is a part of the installments we have to pay if we want to believe in a possibility.The resilience of the Zimbabwean people is a matter of public record.
Zimbabweans have managed to somehow survive each day under the most of excruciating circumstances to miraculously provide food for themselves and their families.

We fought like lions to liberate our country and still refuse to be tamed by anyone. As someone wrote to me recently, I hope we are not lions being led by donkeys.

For several decades, everyday has been D-Day for Zimbabweans because Mugabe treated us with disdain; going into other countries to save and protect foreigners while killing Zimbabweans back home.

On Wednesday, we enter a new phase which, regardless of whether the GNU holds up or not, will peg a watershed on our political landscape. It alarmingly requires of us to trust Robert Mugabe more than we have ever done before.

We are expected to turn 30 years of justified mistrust into faith. Our preference and choice were denied. We have not been left with much room to maneuver.

While Mugabe prolongs the bickering, our people continue to starve to death while Mugabe and his people have access to food and clean water.

We have been forced to trust Mugabe and all who abused us for decades.
Faith is belief in something that cannot be proved.

I do think the international community has asked Zimbabweans for a little too much knowing as we do that there is absolutely no way something called a government of national unity can emerge and last in Zimbabwe.

And yet there is something appealing about lions being led by donkeys.

Article first published Sunday Standard 07/02/09

Archbishop Tutu skeptical of Zimbabwe unity deal

By Donna Bryson

AP – Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said Saturday he doubts that Zimbabwe’s unity government deal can work and insisted the solution to the country’s crisis is the departure of its longtime leader, Robert Mugabe.

Tutu has called on the international community to use the threat of force if necessary to get Mugabe to step down.

Archbishop Tutu(AP Photo)

“I haven’t changed,” he told reporters Saturday. “He’s had an innings. It was a good innings and then he messed up. Let him step down.”

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is accused of destroying the southern African nation’s once-vibrant economy through corruption and mismanagement, and of trampling on the human rights of its people.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is to be prime minister and Mugabe is to remain president in a unity government expected to be inaugurated next week.

Tsvangirai, under pressure from regional leaders and eager to address Zimbabwe’s growing humanitarian crisis, agreed to join the coalition despite the continued jailing and harassment of dissidents and deep reservations about Mugabe’s willingness to share power.

Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, said the deal should be given a chance, “but many are not particularly hopeful.” He said Mugabe would have to be closely monitored to ensure the coalition does not turn out to be a “charade.”

Tutu spoke seated next to Kumi Naidoo, an international anti-poverty advocate in the 18th day of a hunger strike that aimed to put pressure on Mugabe. Naidoo also expressed reservations about the unity government’s prospects for success, but said “now we need to trust the judgment of the people on the ground in Zimbabwe.”

Naidoo called on Mugabe to release political prisoners, allow humanitarian organizations to work freely, and repeal restrictions on free speech and assembly.

In Zimbabwe’s capital Saturday, human rights groups said several prisoners linked to Tsvangirai’s opposition party were at risk of dying in jail. At least three, including a 72-year-old man, were in critical condition, according to doctors who examined them in their cells Friday.

Police are accused of torturing the detainees and have ignored several court orders demanding that the prisoners be sent to private medical facilities.

“We might end up with losing lives. We are very concerned. These people are very sick,” said Dr. Douglas Gwatidzo, director of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights.

On Friday, a judge ended the treason trial of a top Tsvangirai aide, which was seen as a sign that Mugabe’s party wants the coalition to work. Still, scores of opposition members and human rights activists remain jailed in what observers in and outside Zimbabwe say was a crackdown on dissidents as power-sharing negotiations faltered.

Tsvangirai reluctantly agreed Jan. 30 to move forward on a unity government deal without having resolved disputes over Cabinet posts and the treatment of dissidents. The agreement has been stalled since September.

Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe in the opening round of presidential balloting last March, but pulled out of a June runoff because of violence against opposition supporters. International observers have called the June runoff a sham.

The standoff since the March vote has kept the country’s leaders from addressing the country’s devastating economic and social collapse. A cholera epidemic has killed more than 3,300 people and infected 60,000 since August and the world’s highest inflation rate has left millions of Zimbabweans dependent on international food aid to survive.

Associated Press Writer Angus Shaw in Harare, Zimbabwe contributed to this report.

Underwhelming confidence in power-sharing deal

The jury is still out in Zimbabwe about how effective the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, will be in the role of prime minister.

The beleaguered country, which is experiencing a cholera pandemic that has claimed the lives of well over 3,000 people and has 7 million people receiving emergency food aid, is divided about whether Tsvangirai will have any meaningful power.

Photo:

President Robert Mugabe does it his way

According to the power-sharing deal signed on 15 September 2008, which will begin to be implemented on 11 February 2009, when Tsvangirai is inaugurated as prime minister, Robert Mugabe will remain president, as he has been for the past 29 years.

In terms of the deal, executive powers and authority will be shared by the president, prime minister and cabinet. Wellington Chibhebhe, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), told IRIN that a casual glance at the power-sharing pact only gave the MDC “administrative work”.

“There will be no power-sharing and the deal only seeks to confer a winning status on a loser, and a losing status on a winner. The policy and executive authority will be with Mugabe, while Tsvangirai will be an administrator,” he said.

“There is no period, according to the agreement, that Tsvangirai will act as president in the absence of Mugabe, as that would be done by one of the two vice-presidents. If there was power in the office of the prime minister, ZANU-PF would have insisted on having a representative in that office.”

Chibhebhe said the fact that there would be an acting president during Mugabe’s absences meant that Tsvangirai would not chair any cabinet meetings.

However, political analyst Raymond Majongwe said Tsvangirai’s decision to go into government could turn out to be strategic. “Power does not lie in a piece of a document, but depends on how Tsvangirai will deliver – based on the needs of the people – using charisma, intellect and hard work,” he noted.

“I think he will be pleasantly surprised that he will be welcomed by ZANU-PF supporters, who are clamouring for relief after almost a decade of hardships.
The most strategic way to neutralise Mugabe could be for the MDC to get into his kitchen,” he said.

According to the deal, power will be exercised in the following manner:

The President:

- chairs cabinet and exercises executive authority
- chairs the National Security Council – a committee comprised of security force chiefs
- allocates ministerial portfolios after consultation with the vice presidents, the prime minister and deputy prime ministers
- acting in consultation with the prime minister, may dissolve parliament.

However, the parties to the inclusive government are already arguing over the small print. The MDC allege that sections of the power-sharing deal were altered to dilute Morgan Tsvangirai’s powers on the eve of the signing ceremony.

Patrick Chinamasa, chief negotiator for the ruling ZANU-PF party, attributed the changes to “typographical errors”.

The MDC claim the original power-sharing document made provisions for the president and prime minister to implement policy “after agreement” and not “in consultation”, as later reflected in the signed document.

The Prime Minister:

- chairs the Council of Ministers and is deputy chairperson of the cabinet. (The Council of Ministers comprises cabinet ministers to ensure the implementation of cabinet decisions)
- oversees the formulation of government policies by the cabinet
- ensures ministers develop appropriate implementation plans to give effect to the policies decided by cabinet
- ensures legislation necessary to enable the government to carry out its functions is in place
- ensures policies so formulated are implemented by government
- is a member of the National Security Council
- exercises executive authority
- may be assigned such additional functions as are necessary
- is assisted by deputy prime ministers to ensure the effective execution of these tasks
- reports regularly to the president and parliament.

Monitoring body

To ensure full and fair implementation of the 15 September agreement, a Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) will be established with representatives from the deal’s three signatories (ZANU-PF, MDC and the MDC section of the party led by Arthur Mutumbura), with the facilitator of the deal, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, ensuring compliance to the agreement.

Although the agreement states: “The president and prime minister will agree on the allocation of ministries,” Mugabe has already allocated key ministries to himself. He has also appointed a new attorney-general, who told the state controlled newspaper, The Herald, that he was “a proud ZANU-PF supporter”.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono, also known as Mugabe’s personal banker, has been given another five-year term of office, despite a monetary policy that has led to hyperinflation estimated in the trillions of percent by independent economists.

Mugabe has refused to relent on his position not to reappoint provincial governors, even in those provinces won by the MDC during the March 2008 elections.

However, while all the political parties have drafted their negotiators into JOMIC, the chief negotiator for Tsvangirai’s MDC, Tendai Biti, has chosen to stay out in the cold.

Biti was one of the “hardliners” opposed to the formation of an inclusive government because Mugabe was and is flouting many of the terms of the power-sharing agreement. – IRIN

Tsvangirai’s big gamble

Basildon Peta

Morgan Tsvangirai took the biggest gamble of his life by agreeing this week to go into a powersharing government with his archenemy, Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai, who now seems certain to become prime minister to Mugabe’s president on February 11, is being branded by many of his old allies as a sellout.

But most observers believe that in the end he and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had no choice but to opt for the change-from-within strategy, facing relentless pressure from regional leaders.

An authoritative official is convinced that what brought about Tsvangirai’s sudden U-turn – in agreeing to the coalition before all his demands had been met, as he had previously insisted – were his impressions of Mugabe in their recent one-on-one meetings.

“Tsvangirai saw a tired old man who is seeking a safe exit from the political scene,” said the top official, who did not want to be identified.

“Working with him [Mugabe] in government provides a leeway for Morgan to build confidence and pave the stage for Mugabe’s safe retirement and for Morgan himself to take over eventually.”

And even fierce critics of Mugabe, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, are calling on the world to support the unity government. Yesterday the Elders, a group of former leaders which includes Nelson Mandela, urged the international community to support the unity government “to end the terrible suffering” in Zimbabwe.

Jimmy Carter, a former United States president and a member of the Elders, said: “This political agreement is far from perfect – but political life involves taking risks. “The international community should now do what it can to give this agreement the best chance of success. Talking it down will not improve the situation for Zimbabweans – it will only prolong their agony.”

And Tutu, the chairperson of the Elders, said: “We will be watching closely to ensure that the agreement between the political parties is implemented fairly. But the people of Zimbabwe can no longer be held hostage by politics. Their urgent needs must be met.”

Tsvangirai decided to go into the unity government at a summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Pretoria this week. Though several of his lieutenants immediately denied the statement of President Kgalema Motlanthe, the SADC chairperson, that Tsvangirai had agreed to the coalition, the MDC leader confirmed it later and the party’s national executive council endorsed the decision in Harare on Friday.

In a statement after the council meeting, Tsvangirai justified his decision by saying that Mugabe had made concessions on four out of the five demands that the MDC had made going into the summit. Mugabe had agreed to the sharing of provincial governorships, after appointing Zanu PF officials to all of them last year; had agreed to consider legislation for a national security council; had agreed that Constitutional Amendment 19 – laying the constitutional foundation for the unity government – should be adopted before the government was launched and not after; and had agreed that breaches of the Global Political Agreement signed by all the parties on September 15 should be addressed.

This referred to the recent abductions of about 30 MDC supporters. He added that the parties had already begun negotiations on Thursday to agree on a formula for reallocating the governorships and to consider the MDC’s National Security Council Bill. Tsvangirai also noted that a joint monitoring and implementation committee with representatives of all three parties in the new government – Zanu PF, his MDC and Arthur Mutambara’s MDC faction – had been established on Friday to begin addressing the abductions. The committee has powers to refer problems it cannot solve to the unity government and then to SADC and even to the African Union – both of which have guaranteed the unity agreement.

Tsvangirai received a hero’s welcome when he announced to the Harare crowds outside the MDC offices on Friday that the national council had agreed to go into government – a sign that ordinary people are desperate for anything that might lead to a change in their miserable circumstances.

But Tsvangirai’s old struggle ally Lovemore Madhuku of the University of Zimbabwe had branded his decision to join Mugabe in government as “catastrophic”.

“You don’t abandon a legitimate struggle because it is not producing immediate results. It took decades to defeat apartheid,” Madhuku said, adding that the decision to join the government proved “the poverty of Tsvangirai’s politics”.

Though Western governments had indicated that they would not support a unity government if Mugabe remained president, they might reconsider their stance. James McGee, the United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, said the US would assess the unity government on its performance. – Sunday Independent(SA)/ZWNEWS.com

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