Zim power sharing deal proposed
2008-04-23 15:47
Special Report
Zimbabwe PM Morgan Tsvangirai and ministers from his party have attended a cabinet meeting after recently ending a boycott of the country's fragile unity government.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he doesn't expect the US sanctions on his country to be lifted soon.
Harare - Southern African leaders should broker a deal for a transitional unity government as a way around the post-electoral political impasse gripping Zimbabwe, the state media suggested on Wednesday.
In an opinion article in the government mouthpiece, The Herald, a columnist proposed that SADC, a 14-nation southern African bloc that has been mediating in the Zimbabwe crisis, take steps to bring the opposition and ruling Zanu-PF parties together in a transitional power-sharing deal.
"Holding a free and fair election run-off in the immediate term is literally impossible" because the country's political dynamics is distorted and the economic environment is not conducive, wrote Obediah Mukura Mazombwe.
"The most viable and safest way forward is for the SADC to mediate negotiations for a transitional government of national unity," said Mazombwe.
He suggested the unity government could organise a new round of free and fair elections given that last month's elections did not produce an outright winner.
The new government could also urge the lifting of Western-imposed sanctions targeted at President Robert Mugabe and his aides.
"Accordingly, it stands to reason that the transitional government of national unity, negotiated by the two leading contending parties, under mediation of SADC, supported by the international community, should be led by the incumbent president."
Mugabe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said that Mazombwe's article did not represent official thinking.
"He is writing for himself. It confirms that it (the paper) is a market place of ideas. It doesn't represent Zanu-PF position or the government position," he said.
"Our position is very clear. We were approached for a government of national unity and we rejected that discussion (because) our policies are so diametrically opposed."
- AFP