ZIMBABWE:ZIMBABWE'S PARTIES remain deadlocked over the sharing of cabinet posts, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said yesterday.
The party of prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai was responding to claims on Monday from president Robert Mugabe that he expected the unity government, in limbo since September 14th due to the inability of the rival parties to agree on the division of key ministries, to be formed by the end of the week.
Despite signing a powersharing deal more than two weeks ago, Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the MDC have so far been unable to agree on how powerful ministries like home affairs, finance and defence should be divided between them.
Under the powersharing deal, Zanu-PF got 15 cabinet seats, Mr Tsvangirai's MDC got 13 cabinet posts, and a breakaway faction of the MDC, led by Arthur Mutambara, got three positions.
"Only four [ministries] remain, but there is no deadlock," Mr Mugabe said on Monday when asked by reporters how the ministry allocation was progressing.
"We will be setting up government this week, towards the end of the week."
However, responding to Mr Mugabe's assertion yesterday, MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said: "He [Mr Mugabe] obviously knows something that I do not know. We have a deadlock, and our positions are tangential. As far as we know, there was no agreement on anything."
Mr Biti added that a constitutional amendment that gives legal effect to the powersharing deal had not been drafted yet. "Importantly, constitutional amendment number 19 still has to be drafted. Without it, there is no legal foundation of the government," he said.
Last Saturday Mr Tsvangirai, who is the new prime minister under the deal, called on the government to be established "in the next few days" so they could begin helping the millions of Zimbabweans suffering from food shortages.