HARARE – President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have attributed the continued delay in the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to efforts to balance the conflicting interests of their constituencies and pressures from their respective parties.President Mugabe said the current negotiating process was a painstaking process which required repeated consultation with their parties and the corresponding need to accommodate the demands of the other parties.

He said he fully understood the concerns of the other parties and would strive to take them into consideration.

“It is with that in mind that you negotiate. You never negotiate with a view that you will win everything,” President Mugabe said during a joint press conference soon after a meeting of the three principals signatory to the GPA. The conference was held at Zimbabwe House Wednesday.

He said it was difficult to stick to any time-frames when negotiating, saying negotiations were by nature laborious.

“You also don’t negotiate with a view that even those issues where you stand to gain would be negotiated fully in a given time frame,” he said. “The time-frames will merely be guiding lines because arguments that take place go beyond those time-frames.

“They are arguments not just of ourselves. They are arguments even of the bodies that we represent. The bodies that we represent some of which, you know, are prone to criticizing us much more than to accepting our decisions and so you have got to explain also.”

Flanked by the two MDC leaders, Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, leader of the smaller faction of the MDC, President Mugabe said all the parties had made significant gains since the negotiations started.

“We have made lots of gains all of us really,” he said. “We have fulfilled a much greater area than the area that remains unfulfilled.”

Mugabe said Zimbabwe had made strides through the recent announcement of
names of people to sit on three commissions to deal with the media, elections and human rights.

He said the constitution making process was now guaranteed to take off while he had also signed contracts for new ambassadors.

Regarding his unilateral appointment of Attorney General Johannes Tomana, the 85-year old leader, who was in a jovial mood, said the inclusive government was too strong to be torpedoed by “one little issue”.

“When people stick to one little issue – they want to see Tomana going – that becomes a big issue. Ah, come on. Does that prevent our government from moving? This huge government with three bodies! So you get those things you see.

“That is why I say, ‘We are not on our own. We have constituencies where our decisions can be reversed. We have seen some of them being reversed actually by the (Zanu PF) central committee and congress.”

He was referring to the recent Zanu-PF Congress which resolved to bar any further discussion on the status of central bank governor Gideon Gono, Tomana and provincial governors all of whom were unilaterally appointed by Mugabe against the provisions of the GPA which prescribes the collective input of all the three parties in government.

The Zanu-PF congress also resolved to block the new constitution if it contained issues that were purportedly designed to reverse the gains of Zimbabwe’s independence.

Although they did not reveal what they discussed, the three leaders said they were happy with the progress made so far in implementing the GPA.

Tsvangirai also said the parties were striving to conclude the negotiations saying he was also being “roasted” by his followers.

“We have got constituencies and we get roasted sometimes when we try to explain, ‘No, this has not happened because of this’,” said the MDC leader.

“They tell me, ‘You are making excuses. We want this concluded yesterday’ and I can understand the frustrations and the anxiety sometimes but we are in the driving seat and we want to make sure that this is an irreversible process.”

Tsvangirai said the process was still ongoing, saying the leaders would not be pressurized their negotiators into a conclusion.

“On the current negotiations,” he said, “I am sure that we give our negotiators the time to conclude because the danger is that if you interfere with the negotiations at implementation stage, why did you give those negotiators the mandate to negotiate.

“They should tell us where they are disagreeing, they should conclude the work they have concluded then we can endorse or say with don’t agree with it. That is where we are now.

“I hope that it is not going to be long before we put this aside. We want to go to 2010 not always being confronted by the outstanding issues. I think the outstanding issues must be where is the food on the table, where is the real change for the people and I hope that our negotiators will expedite.”

He said it will not take long before the outstanding issues are dealt with fully.

On his part, Mutambara said the problems bedeviling Zimbabwe were not insurmountable.

He urged Zimbabweans to amplify the successes that have so far been registered by the 10-month old inclusive government as opposed to perceived differences.

“We have made progress in this country, let us celebrate our successes, let us give this inclusive government its credit where credit is due, acknowledge the progress, and acknowledge that we have moved and we are building a new Zimbabwe. At the same time, acknowledge that there are still challenges,” he said.

“They are not insurmountable. They are not the issue. The issue is to say when we do the analysis on balance, Zimbabwe is moving forward but we don’t want Zimbabweans to be complacent and be under an illusion that there are no challenges.

“A problem realized is a problem half solved. We must appreciate that this is the only show in town. As Zimbabweans, we have made a decision to work together. The Zimbabweans have said we can do more in an inclusive government than any other alternative.

“So once we realize that the inclusive government is the best option for our country to move forward, we should do all that we can to make sure that we fully and completely consummate the GPA and go into the business of transforming this country.”

Like Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara were in a jovial mood.

Meanwhile, reports say the parties have since resolved 16 out of the 27 outstanding issues as of the time they were directed to resume their talks by a SADC troika summit early last month.

The parties are still deadlocked on the appointments of Gono, Tomana and the provincial governors, as well as Mugabe’s refusal to swear in MDC’s treasurer general Roy Bennett as Zimbabwe’s deputy Minister of Agriculture.

Bennett currently faces terrorism charges.

Written By: Raymond Maingire

Source: The Zimbabwe Times