Adunabar
13-09-2008, 08:30
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080911/wl_afp/zimbabwepoliticstalksdeal
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai Thursday said there was a finally a "deal" on power-sharing, as he emerged from a meeting with President Robert Mugabe.
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"We've got a deal," the leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party told journalists.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is trying to mediate an end to Zimbabwe's long-running political crisis, "is going to issue a statement," Tsvangirai said, without giving details.
Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, told journalists the president was to make a broadcast late Thursday on the outcome of the four-day meeting between Mugabe and MDC leaders.
The power sharing talks have long been deadlocked over the allocation of executive power between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Mugabe won a controversial June presidential runoff unopposed after Tsvangirai withdrew, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters.
Tsvangirai had won the first round of the presidential election in March, but fell short of an absolute majority.
Mugabe has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, but his party lost its parliamentary majority to the MDC for the first time in legislative elections in March.
While the political crisis has dragged on, Zimbabwe's economy has continued its freefall with the world's highest inflation rate -- 11.2 million percent in June, according to official figures.
Once hailed as Africa's breadbasket, Zimbabwe's economy has virtually collapsed over the past decade with inflation out of control and chronic shortages of foreign currency and food including the staples cornmeal, sugar and cooking oil.
This good, and the MDC gets 16 ministers, as opposed to ZANU-PF's 15, but another thing it doesn't mention in this article is how Mugabe still gets control of the army, which could then be used to throw out the MDC.
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai Thursday said there was a finally a "deal" on power-sharing, as he emerged from a meeting with President Robert Mugabe.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We've got a deal," the leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party told journalists.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is trying to mediate an end to Zimbabwe's long-running political crisis, "is going to issue a statement," Tsvangirai said, without giving details.
Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, told journalists the president was to make a broadcast late Thursday on the outcome of the four-day meeting between Mugabe and MDC leaders.
The power sharing talks have long been deadlocked over the allocation of executive power between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Mugabe won a controversial June presidential runoff unopposed after Tsvangirai withdrew, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters.
Tsvangirai had won the first round of the presidential election in March, but fell short of an absolute majority.
Mugabe has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, but his party lost its parliamentary majority to the MDC for the first time in legislative elections in March.
While the political crisis has dragged on, Zimbabwe's economy has continued its freefall with the world's highest inflation rate -- 11.2 million percent in June, according to official figures.
Once hailed as Africa's breadbasket, Zimbabwe's economy has virtually collapsed over the past decade with inflation out of control and chronic shortages of foreign currency and food including the staples cornmeal, sugar and cooking oil.
This good, and the MDC gets 16 ministers, as opposed to ZANU-PF's 15, but another thing it doesn't mention in this article is how Mugabe still gets control of the army, which could then be used to throw out the MDC.