No deal in sight yet, Disagreements mount
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August 11, 2008 | By Philip Mangena | © zimbabwemetro.com ⋅
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With differences pertaining to Cabinets posts, executive power sharing reportedly still to be iron out. Strong disagreements also emerged on the composition of the security detail for Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been tipped to be Prime Minister and 15 or more senior MDC members who will take up posts in the government, Metro has established.
The MDC argued that its existing security personnel for its key members should be official and given weapons by Zimbabwe Defence Industries(ZDI) instead of security provided by the Zimbabwe National Army’s Presidential Guard brigade.
Since yesterday evening ZANU PF has been rubbishing MDC concerns and labelling them as “Minor concerns” , “Premature” “arming civilians” and was adamant that the MDC should not be concerned.
The MDC insists the issue is equally important and is arguing that the army unit is highly politicised to offer genuine close security to the MDC leadership and it would be risky for its senior members` lives to be put into the hands of the ZNA detachment.
The army’s Presidential Guard provides close security to the president, his deputies and all Ministers, it comprises bomb-sniffing dogs through event venues, sweeping all equipment,round the clock residence guarding and flanking. The security is usually composed of 45-50 men armed with AK rifles and other assortment of weapons.
Early this morning Mugabe arrived at Rainbow hotel, accompanied by Zimbabwe Defence Force Commander Constantine Chiwenga, he did not comment when entering.
Meanwhile talks have made minor progress as earlier disagreements over cabinet posts, amnesty and the reformation of the Central Intelligence Organization have reportedly been ironed out however new threats have emerged after Mugabe indicated that he will personally pick the cabinet from MDC MPs regardless of seniority in the MDC party structures.
President Robert Mugabe said on Monday night that the talks were not making progress but that they would resume on Tuesday.
Asked if there had been progress, Mugabe told reporters after more than four hours of discussions: “Not at the present moment but we will continue tomorrow.” Mugabe said sticking points “will be overcome”.
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Tsvangirai has nothing to fear our guards will not kill him.
Hyenas to guard sheep and goats!!!!!!!!!!!! Quiet appertising.
Ngavatonge ka kana vachida. No to a subordinate role for MDC. Mugabe appointing Ministers?????????? What kind of …. is this?
Any deal that involves mugabe will be bad for the country.His past proves that he can never be trusted.For Zimbabwe to move forward it would have to have a government that does not contain mugabe or any of his seniors.None of them can be trusted.
Its time MDC walks out. Any deal that does not respect March vote is not acceptable
I hope Morgan Tsvangirayi will liberate himself from western ideology and realise negotiation is the way forward in Zimbabwe otherwise MDC-T will be finished. Come-on Morgan, but I know a Cat will always be a Cat even when you try to change it`s diet, it will always want to live on Rats. Morgan is in love with the west they gave him millions during the last 10 years including the cheques from the white farmers, and I just hope a Cat will change it`s stance this time.
If Mugabe stays on then my fellow countrymen we are doomed to damnation….Mugabe must go fullstop..
Tawanda, aunoni here kuti its actually ZANU PF that nee MDC more than the other way round? ZANU is finished… AGO should join ZANU
Kotongai ka vana Tawanda. Why is Mugaybe so desperate to engage the ‘West’s puppet’ now? All these years we’ve heard from ZANU what a traitor Morgan is and yet Mugaybe now wants to dine with him? Puuuleeease! Mugaybe needs Morgan more than Morgan needs him, we all know it and most importantly Morgan does. You think Mugaybe is just been charitable by wanting to include MDC in govt? Mugaybe never does anything that doesn’t have his best selfish interests at heart. I hope for the sake of our country’s future these talks collapse, ZANU PF is the worst thing that ever happened to Zimbabwe. The nextbest option is major dilution of control from your monsters.
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MDC accepts responsibility without authority Mmegi, Botswana PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 11 August 2008 09:43
It is reported that dictator, Robert Mugabe, has reached an agreement with the now very suspect, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Under normal circumstances, I would have cheered that, finally, my country was on the brink of greater things. But I dare say that I am not amused by this clear sell-out of an arrangement.
To start with, the MDC won the election, but now we hear that, like Raila Odinga in Kenya, Tsvangirai has accepted being ‘Executive Prime Minister’ and leave the presidency in the hands of the losing candidate, Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai will say he accepted in order to save Zimbabwe, but that is not true. The reason is that, for him, it’s better than nothing, dead people be damned!
Secondly, how will the people feel to see ZANU-PF people, including Mugabe, still wielding power and running ministries and making decisions that affect them? Will the people cheer at such betrayal? Many people were prepared to die for change, and they did, because they did not want anything to do with Mugabe and ZANU-PF after 28 years of murderers, abuse, plunder and misrule.
So did the people go through all this misery in support of the MDC to get this in the end? It gets worse.
If reports are to be believed, there are many appalling concessions made by the MDC. Not only did they agree to employ Mugabe as President, ceremonial as it is expected to be, but they offered Mugabe and his murdering underlings blanket amnesty.
Now that is one issue that I would take up as a personal crusade against the MDC. What authority does the MDC have in pardoning “each and every Zimbabwean who, in the course of upholding or opposing the aims and policies of the government of Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF or either formation of the MDC, may have
committed crimes within Zimbabwe…”?
More than 97 percent of political murders were perpetrated by ZANU-PF thugs against the defenseless MDC supporters so ZANU-PF comes out the winner, thanks to the MDC. Wasn’t it the MDC itself that asked all Zimbabweans to record names, places and incidences of violence committed by ZANU-PF functionaries for later prosecution?
Now we should throw away the lists because they have united at our expense? Curiously, they are both quiet on the Midlands and Matabeleland atrocities. And I don’t like it one bit.
Surely, the MDC cannot pardon crimes committed even before its own formation! Besides, is this the kind of closure the people want?
Is it possible to forget all the many people who were killed by Mugabe and ZANU-PF? I am not forgetting people who were killed by Mugabe and ZANU-PF even before independence.
And the MDC considers itself all forgiving and goes on to forgive people who wronged other people. Think again, I ain’t buying this even if it means launching a campaign for Tsvangirai, along with Thabo Mbeki, to be summoned to The Hague for harbouring and aiding mass murderers.
Tsvangirai will appoint two deputy prime ministers, one from his own party and the other from ZANU-PF, who will both preside over the ministries of Defence and that of Home Affairs? Why? Are they ganging up on the people already?
Mugabe, however, is expected to keep control of the Defence ministry. Why? It is further reported that a number of ministries, including Finance and Investment, Justice, Land, Resettlement Implementation, Agriculture and State Enterprises, “would reside independently of either party chief…” Aaah! The MDC accepted responsibility without authority; I thought all along they were fighting to acquire the authority to change things around? Chinja Maitiro, indeed!
And given the fact that the majority of the ministries will not be under the transitional government, who would be blamed if something went wrong? If the agreement comes out in this reported way, then God have mercy because we have clearly been sold out. People are being asked to stomach the sight of those murderers and to continue yielding to their authority.
There are thousands of people amongst us whose names are not synonymous with amnesty. Do these people expect me to rub shoulders with Joseph Chinotimba “in a new and democratic Zimbabwe”?
Do they expect me do hug and cheer alongside Joseph Mwale at a soccer match? Am I expected to forget the sight of a law abiding farmer, whose farm had been violently seized, lying dead in his shorts on his doorstep with his petrified mutt sitting bolt-upright, as if guarding its master’s corpse?
Are we being asked to forget Tsvangirai’s puffed up face as he was humiliated in front of a court? And some people cried for him.
What about our daughters and sons? People are not given the opportunity to arrive at some sort of closure for all their murdered relatives.
We should all just forget about our dead loved ones so that Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti and all those MDC people can mingle, eat, drink and toast each other as buddies while we are left out in the cold with all our tattered feelings and rubbing our scars and tending to the graves of our murdered relatives.
I can no longer tell the MDC to be careful; they appear to be in too much of a hurry to get on the gravy train.
Why did they not demand that all the service chiefs be retired by Mugabe now, before this agreement goes into effect? The CIO hierarchy must all be retired now by Mugabe. There are people in both the military and the police who have individual cases to answer but the MDC says they all deserve a blanket amnesty.
I thank both Mugabe and Tsvangirai for what they have done. They have done their part and now they should publicise the terms and conditions of the agreement and hold a referendum to give the people, on
whose behalf they negotiated, the opportunity to accept, reject or to fine tune it, unless, of course, they were negotiating for themselves.
I don’t suppose they intend to force whatever agreement they reach on the people, do they? We are also mindful of our heavily panel-beaten Constitution. We need a new constitution as a basis of all these maneuvers.
As Mbeki meets with the two leaders, Mugabe’s violence continues on innocent people. And you say these are the people who should be forgiven? Mugabe and his service chiefs and all his functionaries must answer for the crimes they committed in the motherland. No, I declare, there will not be blanket amnesty. I wanna bet, just this once?
TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
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The people of Zimbabwe wants a government of national unity thus why Mugabe is negotiating. President Mugabe has been in coalition before with Ian Smith from 1980-87 period and with Nkomo from 1987 onwards. I think His Excellency is right to try to persuade this poor Morgan but we are loosing patience now since we can still form a government with Mutambara. If Morgan does not form a goverment with Zanu pf then MDC-T is finished.
To Tawanda who is “loosing” patience with Morgan: Nothing is stopping Zanu from going on with Mutambara. As we have been saying all along Mutambara has been CIO all along together with Welshman. Mutambara was “bought off” by Mugabe to silence him from opposition politics when he was at the UZ. so they gave him a “scholarship” which was funded by the west to go and study overseas. And so now its time for him to pay back. You can not fool all the people all the time my friend. Vanhu vanofunga nemidhidhi munonzwisa vurombo. So what does it solve to form a government without the wishes of the people?
Dead or still killing.
It’s unfortunate you wasted your time copying an article by some ****-eyed so-called journalist who is living in fantasy land.
The problem with that chap ‘Tanonoka’ is he is not privy to talks and that makes all he is writing a monstorous dilusion.
It is because of individuals like him there is a media black-out. I wouldn’t be suprised to find his background to be connected with either ZBC or The Herald and its sister papers as that is where you find stories without factual basis being expounded as the truth and nothing but th truth.
Mugabe why waste tyme grow up old man for how long should Zimbabweans suffer ans suffocate well
Well Mr Thabo Mbeki kana zwa netsa tawura Dont enjoy fliying hear and there….thats nustyko Mugabe Why did China denay you to watch olympics???? ask yourself or pinch yourself and feel the pain…..Mugabe is juss wasting and buying tyme if Tswangirayi you not careful these people are planing to kill you watch-out they are not friendly!!!!!!! Mutambara ukayirasa chete Zanupf wokoyo nayo inonda kukushandisa and becareful you will die soon like Boder Gezi…
MUGABE MUST HANG. WHAT THE HELL IS HE TALKING ABOUT WHEN HE SAYS HE WILL APPOINT MDC MINISTERS! THIS MONKEY IS THICK HEADED AND WE WILL SHOW HIM THE WAY. NOW HE THOUGHT THE MDC WAS A WALK OVER PARTY, HE REALISES HE NEEDS MORE BRAINS THAN HE HAS. MUGABE, BEING A MURDERER, SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED THIS TO HAVE ANY SUCH POWER.IN ADDITION, THE NATION MUST NEVER FORGET TO CHARGE HIM FOR THE ATTROCITIES HE COMMITTED AGAINST INNOCENT CIVILIANS.
We the people of Zimbabwe will not allow mugabe and his associates to get away with murder.If Tsvangarai agrees to a blanket amnesty for mugabe and his zanu ****heads,then we the people of Zimbabwe will sort it out ourselves.Morgan,if you agree to this then you will not be voted into power with the next election.We cannot forgive these murderous zanu ****heads.They will pay with there lives for what they have done.To all you zanu ****heads,watch your backs because we are going to take you out one by one.We will not let you rest.In a large group you are brave but one on one you are nothing but a piece of chicken ****.
Power sharing is very difficult to implement.No company has ever had two CEO and expect to operate efficiently.Instead of discussing power sharing why not involve the people at large WE HAVE THE ANSWER.Yes MDC has its very weak points they cant stick to their decisions and ZANU pf should stop blaming the west you had all the time to sort the mess.What is new that you are going to do after 28 yrs.yes murungu murungu he will exploit .How about the east are we not going to see the same happening.`MDC is not my cup of tea but ZANU pf seems not to be discussing in good faith
Dont pas the buck for how long. The fact that you are now locked in discussions with the MDC means you have realised you cant go it alone.For the sake of progress MDC should stick to its guns..
To Daddy Matty,
I worked for the ZBC once…so?