'Unlock power-sharing talks'

2008-09-05 12:05

Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party appealed Friday for help from regional bloc SADC to unlock stalled power-sharing talks as President Robert Mugabe threatened to form a new cabinet.

"It is very clear that the deadlock in the current dialogue has to be unlocked," Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, told SA FM radio.

"And to be unlocked we need the help of SADC (Southern African Development Community) and the helping hand of the mediator, (South African) President Thabo Mbeki," he said.

"It is better to be talking than fighting. Our country is so important, so precious. We need to resolve all our differences through dialogue for prosperity and stability in the country," he added.

Mugabe was quoted in state media on Thursday as saying that he would move ahead and form a government if Tvsangirai did not sign a power-sharing deal on Thursday.

"If after tomorrow (Thursday), Tsvangirai does not want to sign, we will certainly put together a cabinet. We feel frozen at the moment", Mugabe had told The Herald.

Chamisa said on Friday it would be "tragic" if Mugabe proceeded to form a cabinet without the power-sharing talks being concluded.

"In fact, he will be committing a political suicide because there is no way that that cabinet is going to be functional because it does not have a legitimacy, the endorsement and the support of the people as well as the MDC," he said.

Talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, whose MDC holds a parliamentary majority, were deadlocked in mid-August over Mugabe's desire to retain control of the country's security forces, according to the opposition.

Last ditch attempts to revive the negotiations by Mbeki, who is mediating in the crisis on behalf of SADC, failed last week.

Tsvangirai rejected a power-sharing deal that would have seen security ministries reporting to Mugabe and economic and social ministries to himself, the MDC leader told South African radio on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe's crisis intensified after Mugabe's re-election in a widely condemned June presidential run-off in which he was the only candidate.

- AFP