Tsvangirai not attending regional summit
Morgan Tsvangirai will not attend a regional summit on Zimbabwe's political crisis
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Monday, 20, Oct 2008 11:14
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will not attend a regional summit on the country's political crisis, a party spokesman has confirmed.
Movement for Democratic Changes (MDC) spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the Reuters news agency: "He is not going. He was denied a passport."
The meeting of the heads of state of Angola, Swaziland and Mozambique – who make up the security committee of the Southern African Development Community – will hope to help Zimbabwe's political rivals break a deadlock in negotiations to form a new cabinet.
An MDC official claimed Mr Tsvangirai was given emergency travel documents yesterday to travel to Swaziland but not for South Africa, which he needs to pass through.
"There is no way you can expect him to be in Swaziland when they are making it difficult for him," the official said.
The opposition party issued a statement claiming the events of the last 24 hours made any kind of deal to end the current crisis very difficult.
"There have been developments in the past 24 hours that make it incredibly difficult for the MDC to have confidence in the current mediation process. Their faith and hope in the current mediation process and its ability to deliver a solution to the people of Zimbabwe is now called into question," the statement declared.
Over the weekend, talks to end the political deadlock over the power-sharing deal failed once more.
The power sharing agreement is currently bogged down by disagreements over the sharing of key cabinet portfolios between president Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the MDC party.
Speaking to supporters on Saturday, Mr Tsvangirai said: "It was a dialogue of the deaf. It was a one man dialogue. [Mr] Mugabe does not negotiate and was refusing to negotiate. He was saying no to everything."
Zimbabwe is currently mired in an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions outside a war situation.
The country's inflation is running at over 231 million per cent, the unemployment rate is over 80 per cent and there are shortages in water, medicines and electricity, while various sectors of the economy have collapsed under the weight of the biting economic crisis.
Western nations and international finance institutions have promised financial aid to help Zimbabwe's economy if Mr Mugabe sticks to the power sharing deal.