Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader sounded optimistic as power-sharing talks paused, preparing for a restart today.
The latest round of talks opened on Monday at a Harare hotel with the mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, flying in to push negotiators past a major block: The question of whether President Robert Mugabe or main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should have the top position in a unity government.
“There’s been a positive development,” Mr Tsvangirai said as the negotiators went home for the night yesterday. He said talks would resume today.
The government of Swaziland, which currently chairs the Southern African Development Community’s key safety and security committee, had scheduled a summit-level committee meeting on Zimbabwe today with Mr Mugabe and Mr Mbeki.
It was not immediately clear whether the summit would go ahead if talks were progressing in Harare.
The Southern African Development Community has so far taken a soft approach on Mr Mugabe in its official statements. But sharp public rebukes from members such as Zambia and Botswana indicate Zimbabwe’s leader has faced pressure behind the scenes.
Mr Tsvangirai’s party won the most votes in legislative and presidential elections in March.
Mr Mugabe subsequently was the only candidate in a presidential runoff that followed an onslaught of state-sponsored violence against Mr Tsvangirai’s supporters and was widely denounced as a sham.
Mr Tsvangirai had said he should be head of government and Mr Mugabe should be head of state - a largely ceremonial position.
Mr Mugabe, though, appears unwilling to surrender much of the power he has wielded since independence from Britain in 1980.
In his first major speech since negotiations began, Mr Tsvangirai said at a party rally on Sunday that Mr Mugabe should accept a ceremonial presidency or “let’s go for elections under international supervision and see who will carry the day”.
“We should not be pushed into a deal,” Mr Tsvangirai said. “We would rather have no deal than get a bad deal.”
Mr Mugabe has threatened in recent days to name a Cabinet without input from Mr Tsvangirai. The opposition says that would undermine the talks.
Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, has objected to Mr Mbeki’s mediation in the past, calling the South African president biased toward Mr Mugabe and asking that he be replaced.
On Sunday, Mr Tsvangirai said: “The biggest problem we have is there are people who are putting pressure on the MDC, not (on) Mugabe.”
AP