Zimbabwe averts meltdown, faces new deadline for reforms

A summit of southern African leaders ended late Thursday with Tsvangirai agreeing to end his three-week boycott of the government that he formed in February with President Robert Mugabe.

The summit gave the rival leaders 30 days to negotiate an end to their disputes, including a feud over key government appointments and the arrest and harassment of Tsvangirai loyalists.

“We are giving dialogue a chance, dialogue is our biggest tool as it brought this inclusive government,” Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for Tsvangirai's party, told AFP on Friday.

“What remains to be seen is the enforcement of this decision, but this new deadline presents a perfect opportunity to our partners in (Mugabe's) ZANU-PF to show seriousness.”

South Africa was tasked with evaluating Zimbabwe's progress and reporting back to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the 15-nation bloc that acts as guarantor to the power-sharing deal.

Tsvangirai spoke only briefly afterwards to announce the end of the boycott, but Mugabe has made no remarks.

The state-run Herald newspaper, however, brushed off Tsvangirai's concerns and again insisted that Zimbabwe's main problem was a western travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe and about 200 members of his inner circle.

“ZANU-PF maintains that these (MDC's concerns) are peripheral issues compared to the substantial issue of sanctions,” an unnamed source said in the paper.

“In fact, there is dishonesty on the part of the prime minister because he wants to use sanctions as leverage,” the source added.

Analysts said that neither party left with anything concrete, except for heightened international pressure to make their shaky power-sharing arrangement hold.

“SADC is walking a very thin line. They will continue to give direction on Zimbabwe, but they would want the parties to find their own solution to the country's problems,” said Takura Zhangazha, a political analyst and director of Media Institute of Southern Africa.

“It will be difficult to solve anything within the next 30 days,” he told AFP.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email