Only George Charamba knows about that Ministries allocation-ZANU PF
A senior ZANU PF official has professed ignorance about a ‘ministries allocation’ released to the state media on Friday fuelling speculation that the move could have been a propaganda offensive by Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba before Mbeki arrives for mediation tomorrow(Monday).
A few hours earlier Mugabe had met with Morgan Tsvangirai and the two decided to call in a mediator to break the impasse over allocation of defence, information,home affairs and finance ministries.
“The three leaders agreed to call in the facilitator to assist in resolving the outstanding issues. An appeal will be made to the facilitator for him to travel to Zimbabwe,” said ZANU PF chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa.
However a senior ZANU PF official who requested that his identity be withheld told Metro that the list was ZANU PF ‘s negotiating position and nothing has been agreed on.
“That is our negotiating position,and it was foolish by who ever did it to reveal it,nothing has been concluded yet. ”
It is still not clear why the list was realised but pundits said initial observations indicate whatever the strategy was it backfired.
Newspapers were quick to point out the imbalance and headlines screamed on Saturday;
“Mugabe claims all key ministries”-Mail and Guardian,South Africa
“Power deal crisis as top jobs seized by Mugabe” -Mail and Guardian,UK
“Mugabe hands key ministries to ZANU-PF”-AFP
“Mugabe grabs key ministries, angers opposition”- SABC,South Africa
“Mugabe claims key ministries”-The Sunday Times,South Africa
“Probably ZANU PF wanted to portray the MDC as being unreasonable,but you cannot grab all security ministries and try to portray that as a genuine power-sharing agreement,” noted Asher Tarivona-Mutsengi, a Canada based social commentator who also hastened to point out that the newly created Ministry of Prisons and Correctional Services was missing from the ZANU PF list.
University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure said Mugabe’s action was designed to pre-empt Mbeki’s mediation effort.“It’s a pre-emptive move to Mbeki to say this is what we want. Mugabe has taken the lion’s share and gave a mouse to MDC,” said Masunungure. “What Mugabe has done breeds ill-wish and it deepens distrust between the parties.”
Last week Mugabe’s spokesman claimed that only the Finance ministry was outstanding but that statement was quickly dismissed by the MDC.
Mbeki, who clinched the Zimbabwe power-sharing deal days before he was forced to give up South Africa’s presidency by his ruling ANC party, has agreed to continue his mediation role and will travel to Harare on Monday.
In August this year a reporter with The Herald revealed that the Mugabe’s spokesman who also controls the state media George Charamba gave the state paper the highly sensitive talks documents to publish before any agreements were signed.
‘We were surprised when Charamba gave us the documents way before the talks were concluded on Tuesday afternoon,and specifically told the headline should read ‘ New dawn:Deal sealed’, we published some of the document contents the following day. At first we thought indeed a deal has been reached,but Charamba called us back with specific instructions on what the story should say’, the source revealed.
There was no deal reached then but the state media went on to publish the story saying MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara and ZANU PF had signed a deal,the story backfired heavily. In the same story the paper went on to repeat the mantra that Tsvangirai is a western puppet,despite a MOU clause warning against hateful language.
The MDC warned that irresponsible reporting under the direction of Mugabe’s spokesman Charamba on the talks will effectively destroy the talks between it and ZANU PF.
The MDC warned; ‘This report will fundamentally undermine and kill the dialogue. ..these are the actions of a desperate and cornered regime, which we find corrosive. We urge Zanu PF to desist from executing this sly, nicodimus and foolish process but to navigate Zimbabwe out of the current crisis.”
Charamba belongs to the Mnagagwa faction in ZANU PF which has long been accused of trying to sabotage the talks and was key player in the ill-fated Ndiyane plot on December 2004 which was meant to catapult Mnagagwa to the vice presidency, Charamba drafted a speech for Mnangagwa for the event and hired a plane for the meeting. The plot backfired.
Posted by Gerald Harper
on October 12, 2008. Filed under Local News.
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