The deal: LIVE

Latest on the talks

Thousands of supporters of ZANU PF and MDC have already been celebrating in front of the convention centre in Harare where the ceremony is taking place. But it’s a compromise for both sides and it’s still not clear exactly how it’ll work.

So will it bring the stability that the country so desperately needs and how will the international community react?

Scroll down for news, reaction, and your chance to post comments and updates.

11:07am

The BBC temporarily lost its satellite link to Zimbabwe – hopefully this is not a bad omen for the peace-keeping deal. It’s restored in time for Mugabe’s speech.

Tsvangirai is calling on all the parties to “put the interests of the nation first and work together for a new Zimbabwe”. He also calls on the international community to bring that about more quickly by lending their support. As Reuters reports today the European Union has already deferred any decisions about its sanctions on Zimbabwe. Before the deal, the EU had planned to add on more names to a list of Zimbabwean officials whose assets are frozen and who are banned from travelling to Europe.

10:43am

Mutambara has told Mugabe and Tsvangirai that their task now is to make the deal work. “We fought viciously, now we must deliver on deal,” he says.
Tsvangirai has just got to his feet, to yet more cheers. He makes a round of thanks to Mbeki, the people of Zimbabwe and so on, before getting on to the question of why he signed the deal – “for the hope of a new beginning”. He has chosen to be guided by hope in order to see a “rebirth” for Zimbabwe, he says.

10:25am

Mugabe and Tsvangirai just shook hands, although blink and you’d have missed it. It wasn’t the warmest of handshakes but it’ll still be the picture on tomorrow’s front pages.

10:19am

Mbeki has introduced Mugabe as president, Tsvangirai as prime
minister and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a smaller opposition faction, as deputy prime minister. Leaders of the 14-member regional bloc and of the African Union are at also the ceremony. It’s an historic moment – the end of three decades of power for Mugabe. In spite of the carnival atmosphere, Mugabe appears to be the only person in the room who is not smiling. Tsvangirai looks relieved.

10:06am (BST)

This is the moment. A cheer goes up as the formal signing process takes place. It looks more like a Hollywood awards ceremony, with South African president Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the deal, paying tribute to all those who made it happen. The cheering and clapping continues as Mugabe and Tsvangirai put their signatures to the paperwork.

What they said

Tsvangirai:

“I would like to thank the people of Zimbabwe for adhering to the principles of peaceful, democratic development. We had two options: To put aside our differences … or to plunge our country into the abyss of a failed state. ”
He quoted Mugabe in 1980: “Let us turn our swords into ploughshares”.
“I have signed this agreement because my belief in Zimbabwe and its people runs deeper than the scars I bear from these struggles.”
“Today every one of us has a decision to make … shall we be driven by the hope of a new, better, brighter country. The hope of a new beginning.”
“Let us invent a common future. This does not mean we must forget about the past decades of hardship.”
“The agreement we signed today is the product of painful compromise. It does not provide an instant cure. The road ahead will be long. Patience is a virture.”
“Hope alone will not deliver a new Zimbabwe.”
“This new, inclusive government will introduce a new way of governing.”
“As prime minister designate I call on all supporters for Zanu-PF and MDC to unite as Zimbabweans. Divisions, polarisation and hatred belong to the past.”
“Party divisions no longer matter to the people of Zimbabwe.”
“The hand with which I signed this agreement is the hand which I extend to President Mugabe.”

Then it was the turn of Mugabe, who said:

“This gathering is a re-enactment, in my view, of that togetherness, the partnership, the co-operation that has seen processes taking place here leading here to a number of our countries achieving their independence.”
“Yesterday, as we of Zimbabwe sought to liberate ourselves and the fight was between us, the people of Zimbabwe and the oppressors, it was the frontline states who, together with us, shaped the struggle, that led to our independence.”
“We, the Zimbabweans, decided that it was not right and proper, never just at all, for a people like ourselves to bear the yolk of colonialism and oppression.”
“Today, as we were faced and confronted by an intractable foe, here we are once again. They (the frontline states)are with us.”
“I don’t see any British among them!”
“African problems must be solved by Africans.”
“The problem that we have now is a problem that has been created by a former colonial power wanting to continue to interfere in our domestic affairs.”
“Zimbabwe’s land belongs to Zimbabweans”.
“They spoke of regime change and they are still speaking of it. They imposed sanctions. We had not attacked Britain, we had not done anything to Britain. We had not attacked America. Why, why, why the hand of the Americans here? Let us ask that.”

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Posted by Wellington Chadehumbe on September 15, 2008. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.