SANF 08 No 72
The SADC Organ troika meeting in Harare has recommended that talks on the formation of an inclusive government be referred to a full regional summit of Heads of State and Government after it failed to break the impasse.
The Extra-ordinary Summit was called after Zimbabwe’s two main political parties — the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — failed to agree on the allocation of the Home Affairs Ministry.
According to a press statement by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary, Tomaz Salomão, the participants recommended holding a full summit “to further review the current political situation in Zimbabwe as a matter of urgency.”
Salomão said he was confident that a full summit of regional leaders would be able to assist in finalising the matter.
The Executive Secretary said the only outstanding issue was that of the Ministry of Home Affairs and “no fresh issues were brought up for discussion.
“We are confident that this issue will be finalised at a full SADC Summit. Other issues remain to be resolved but these will only come afterwards,” Salomão said.
These issues include Constitutional Amendment Number 19, which would give legal effect to the agreement, and the distribution of governors for the country’s 10 administrative provinces.
He said there are a number of options that could be pursued in seeking to deal with the contentious Ministry of Home Affairs.
These include the sharing of the position as suggested by the Troika or a rotational system where both political parties would take turns in running the ministry.
Salomão also revealed that the Troika had discussed the issue of who would appoint the minister between President Robert Mugabe and the Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai, but could not give more details on the matter.
The Summit noted the progress made so far regarding allocation of ministries and that there is convergence between the parties with respect to cooperative management of the Home Affairs ministry.
The summit, which was chaired by Mozambique’s President and Deputy Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, Armando Guebuza, called on the parties to “genuinely commit themselves to finding a lasting solution to the current deadlock and ease the difficult challenges and suffering among ordinary Zimbabweans.”
Swaziland currently chairs the Troika but King Mswati could not attend the meeting and delegated his Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini, to attend.
The third member of the Organ troika is Angola, which was represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Assunção dos Anjos.
The summit was attended by the SADC chairperson, the South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, the former President of South Africa and SADC-appointed facilitator on the Zimbabwe political dialogue Thabo Mbeki, and President Mugabe, as well as Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara, the Deputy Prime Minister-designate.
The Troika meeting in Harare resulted from the cancellation of the original summit scheduled for 20 October in Swaziland which Tsvangirai boycotted saying that he did not have proper travel documents.
The Summit was convened at the request of the SADC facilitator, Thabo Mbeki who had to be called back on 16 October after ZANU-PF and the MDC failed to agree on the Ministries of Home Affairs under which the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Department of Immigration, and the Registrar General’s Office fall, and that of Finance.
The talks also failed to move forward because ZANU-PF felt the MDC was re-opening discussion on issues that had already been agreed to such as the executive powers of the President.
SADC has constantly “encouraged and appealed to the parties to sign any outstanding agreements and conclude the negotiations as a matter of urgency to restore political stability in Zimbabwe.”
As a result, on 15 September the political parties signed a SADC-backed agreement that has been stalled because of failure to agree on key ministries.
An agreement on the outstanding Ministry of Home Affairs will pave the way for an inclusive government whose major task will be to turn around the economy.
SADC said the full summit could be held this week or next week in South Africa or Swaziland.
