Independent Political Bureau and Foreign Service
Former Director-General in the Presidency Frank Chikane, now a presidential consultant and still a facilitator in the Zimbabwean crisis, tells journalists that none of the parties in Harare can govern without the other.
Chikane is briefing journalists now in Pretoria.
This comes as negotiators from Zimbabwe's three political parties are to meet from tomorrow to try to thrash out remaining differences so that the long-delayed unity government can be launched on February 11.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai clarified yesterday that he had indeed agreed at a regional summit on Monday to join President Robert Mugabe in this unity government on February 11 - but subject to the resolution of outstanding issues that he described as "work in progress".
He also said that in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Pretoria on Monday, Mugabe had made some concessions on three of the MDC's five main demands.
These were on the re-appointments of provincial governors, national security legislation and passage of constitutional amendment number 19 giving legal effect to the September 15 unity agreement.
Negotiators from Mugabe's ZanuPF, Tsvangirai's MDC (MDC-T) and the smaller MDC of Arthur Mutambara (MDC-M) would meet from tomorrow (Thursday) to try to resolve these outstanding "work in progress" issues, he said.
MDC-T's national executive council is to meet on Friday to ratify the summit's decisions that the unity government, with Tsvangirai as Prime Minister and Mugabe as President, should be launched early next month.
Though MDC officials had earlier insisted the council would reject the decision, Tsvangirai seemed optimistic that it would in fact endorse it and that optimism is shared in the MDC in Harare.
|