Zimbabwe's inter-party talks between the ruling Zanu-PF and the two opposition MDC formations resume in South Africa on Tuesday with the focus on the content of draft Constitutional Amendment Number 19, newspaper The Herald reported.
South African interim president Kgalema Motlanthe on Monday announced that the three political parties would meet in his country. He expressed hope that the talks would break the impasse between the parties.
The talks facilitator Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president, last week summoned the three parties to South Africa to discuss the draft Bill but the meeting was postponed after one of the MDC-T negotiators Tendai Biti was reported to have "prior engagements" in the US.
Constitutional Amendment Number 19 Bill seeks to include the position of Prime Minister, his two deputies and nine non-constituency senators, among other things, in the Constitution.
The Zimbabwean government's legal department completed the draft Constitutional Amendment (No. 19) Bill and sent it to Mbeki for scrutiny.
Once the draft Bill is gazetted, according to law, there will be a 30-day waiting period for the public and other stakeholders to scrutinize it and make their own observations. It will then be brought to parliament for debate and adoption. It needs a two-thirds majority to pass.
MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa, confirmed that his party's negotiating team would attend the meeting. "We hope that all outstanding issues would be discussed and ironed out so that we move forward and tackle the economic problems facing Zimbabweans," he said.
Chamisa said the MDC-T was worried about the socio-ecopolitical situation in the country, which he said could be solved by the conclusion of the Sept. 15 power-sharing deal.
MDC secretary general, Professor Welshman Ncube confirmed that the negotiators were set to leave for South Africa to discuss the draft Bill.
Source: Xinhua
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