Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his major rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, resumed Monday talks, which stalled after the two sides signed a power-sharing deal in September but until now failed to agree on how to allocate the government ministries.
The talks, joined by regional leaders, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC)'s security committee members, came after Tsvangirai boycotted a regional summit on Zimbabwe held in Swaziland one week ago.
Tsvangirai refused to attend that summit even after the Swaziland king offered a private jet to pick him up, accusing Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party of being not committed to the talks.
Zimbabwe parties remain high expectations that the meeting of SADC leaders will finally put to rest disagreements over the allocation of cabinet portfolios and pave way for the formation of an all-inclusive government, Zimbabwe's daily paper The Chronicle reported on Monday.
"We are optimistic that the meeting will bring positive results and bring to an end the saga so that the country can move forward. We want the country to move forward and any other delay will bring irreversible action from the Government," the ruling ZANU-PF chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa was quoted as saying.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who has entrusted by SADC to mediate the talks, is expected to brief the SADC security troika -- Swaziland, Mozambique and Angola, on his efforts to broker a lasting solution to the political impasse in Zimbabwe.
The opposition MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the day before the meeting resumed that "We respect African institutions and effort and tomorrow's meeting is important for the whole country. We expect our colleagues in ZANU-PF to be flexible and appreciate the challenges being faced in Zimbabwe."
"We have a duty to bring finality and closure to this issue of formation of Government." he said, quoted by the newspaper.
Chamisa added that his party hoped that there would be an agreement on Monday so that people would begin focusing on other developmental issues such as farming.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article