ZIMBABWE REMAINS in a complete political impasse over the efforts to agree a powersharing government between President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
It is hard to see any signs of a breakthrough following yesterday’s decision by the Southern African Development Community to recommend that Mr Tsvangirai should become prime minister on February 11th. His party immediately criticised the plan and is expected to reject it at the weekend. Its members say the proposed coalition is overwhelmingly loaded against them and will in due course collapse in Mr Mugabe’s favour if they agree.
The fact that Mr Mugabe himself attended the summit meeting as a full participant is taken by Mr Tsvangirai’s supporters as proof that they cannot expect a fair hearing from the 15 regional leaders brought together in the SADC. After a prolonged meeting the summit disregarded the five major points put to it by Mr Tsvangirai’s party. The MDC insists that Mr Mugabe’s control of security ministries must be balanced by allocating the home affairs ministry to them. They demand prior agreement on appointing the director of the central bank and the attorney general. They say it will be impossible to agree on such positions after a government is formed because Mr Mugabe will override them and then blame them for the collapse of trust.
These rather arid disagreements on portfolios, due legal process and the structures of government only make sense in the context of Zimbabwe’s miserable economic, social and political condition. This week the central bank started printing Z$10 trillion bank notes just as the price of a loaf of bread reached Z$30 trillion. Two weeks ago it cost Z$30 billion. Hyperinflation has destroyed the economy, leaving most people unemployed and short of food. Millions have fled abroad. Water shortages and the collapse of the sewage system have multiplied the cholera epidemic that has killed 3,000 people and made another 60,000 ill in recent months. The remaining patina of legality, media freedoms and parliamentarianism which gave Zimbabwe its elections last year has been steadily undermined by Mr Mugabe’s authoritarian rule and continuing harsh repression of his political opponents.
It is these material facts that make the MDC’s strong objections to this deal with Mr Mugabe plausible and convincing. The failure to agree on a government symbolises a wider breakdown of trust following the agreement last September to negotiate a powersharing arrangement. Without much stronger action from neighbouring states in the SADC and the African Union Mr Mugabe will try to remain in power, drawing comfort from Mr Tsvangirai’s understandable refusal to co-operate. Other international players, including the European Union this week, have strengthened sanctions against close associates of Mr Mugabe and companies they control. That is an important gesture, but it needs more support at United Nations level by spreading the truth about Zimbabwe’s calamity.