Harare – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai expressed satisfaction on Wednesday with the progress made in talks mediated by South African President Jacob Zuma and aimed at salvaging their unity government.

Emerging after two hours of talks with Zuma at a luxury hotel in Harare, Mugabe, 86, said: “We’ve started a discussion which is going on very well.

“We are very happy. There are no controversies.”

Former opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Tsvangirai also said the talks were “going very well”.

Zuma, who is mediating on behalf of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community, first held one-on-one talks with the two rivals in an attempt to resolve a dispute over the implementation of reforms that has slowed the country’s economic turnaround.
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Since Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government was inaugurated in February last year, fundamental differences have jammed the implementation of an agreement that calls for reforms of repressive laws, the setting up of commissions to ensure a free press, democratic elections and human rights, and the drafting of a new, people-driven constitution.

During the course of the last month, Mugabe has been accused of aggravating tensions by unilaterally passing laws that force white companies to cede majority shares in their companies to black Zimbabweans, and by stripping some of Tsvangirai’s ministers of their authority.

The new indigenisation laws, if implemented, would see several South African mining companies have to relinquish control of their assets.

The leaders have a 27-item list of “outstanding issues”, including Mugabe’s appointment, without consultation, of his cronies as attorney general and central bank governor.

Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, for its part, accuses Tsvangirai of failing to persuade Western governments to lift targeted sanctions against Mugabe and other members of the Zanu-PF elite. The restrictions imposed by the European Union and the United States include asset freezes and travel bans.

Justice minister and Zanu-PF negotiator Patrick Chinamasa was quoted on Wednesday as saying that negotiators from the three parties would have to settle their differences by next weekend. A progress report would then be sent to Zuma.

It is not clear whether the deadline came from Zuma himself.

Zuma, who took over as mediator from former South African President Thabo Mbeki late last year, is under pressure at home to take a firmer hand with Mugabe than his predecessor.

Zuma has so far been reluctant to criticise Mugabe openly. And in meetings with Western leaders, he has been more vocal in support of Mugabe’s campaign to lift sanctions than the need for further human rights reforms.

SAPA/Independent