At last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
President Robert Mugabe, and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, today shook hands perfunctorily after signing an agreement to share power that could be the prelude to western financial help for the country’s wrecked economy.
The two arch-rivals and the leader of a breakaway MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, signed documents at the main Harare convention centre on an occasion marked by pomp and ceremony, although Mugabe and Tsvangirai for the most part were unsmiling.
The signing took place after short introductions by the king of Swaziland, Mswati III, and Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, who brokered the agreement. In a ceremony designed to show an African approach to solving an African crisis, leaders from across the continent gathered to see what could be the changing of the guard after Mugabe’s long reign.
Thousands of supporters of the two rivals massed in front of the convention centre to celebrate, waving posters, chanting slogans and singing songs.
The deal was the culmination of three months of difficult negotiations by Mbeki at the behest of the Southern African Development Community. Mbeki arrived today with his foreign affairs minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and Sydney Mufamadi, a cabinet minister who has led the negotiations.
“The South African government has noted that while this is cause for celebrations, we remain all too aware that this historic milestone constitutes but the end of the beginning,” South Africa’s government said yesterday.
The EU welcomed the breakthrough today, but its foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said officials would probably wait until next month to consider lifting sanctions. The EU wants to see whether Mugabe really does cede power to the opposition.
Mbeki and Tsvangirai announced the deal on Thursday. They gave no details, saying the agreement would be made public today.
Under the broad outlines of the deal, Tsvangirai would become prime minister and would chair a council of ministers that supervised the cabinet. Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party would have 15 cabinet seats, Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change 13, and a splinter MDC faction three seats.
Photos from the event,Click to enlarge
Posted by Wellington Chadehumbe
on September 15, 2008. Filed under Local News,Photo Gallery.
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