Tsvangirai: Mugabe does not want to negotiate
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told the rally that Mr Mugabe did not want to negotiate
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Saturday, 18, Oct 2008 04:43
Zimbabwe's political rivals failed to reach a power sharing agreement after four days of marathon talks because president Robert Mugabe was refusing to negotiate, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Saturday.
"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," the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader said.
"And when he was saying no to our demands and other issues, he was also refusing to offer any suggestions to break the deadlock.
"Mugabe does not want to negotiate," Mr Tsvangirai told over 20,000 opposition party supporters at rally in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo.
The rally was meant to update party followers on the stalled dialogue with Mr Mugabe.
On Friday, Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mugabe - after four days of marathon meetings running over 12 hours per day – failed to break the country’s political deadlock to save a power sharing deal they signed last month.
The power sharing agreement is bogged down by disagreements over the sharing of key cabinet portfolios between Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition MDC party.
Mr Tsvangirai said his party is calling for the intervention of African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to mediate because it wants the deal to work.
"We are going to SADC and the AU because we have faith in the deal and we want his deal to work," he told cheering party supporters.
Talks to save the power sharing agreement began on Monday under the mediation of former South African president, Thabo Mbeki who brokered the deal after months of negotiations.
Under the deal, Mr Mugabe became the head of state and government while Mr Tsvangirai took the new post of prime minister, with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF in charge of 15 ministries while Mr Tsvangirai's party allocated 13.
Four weeks of disagreements over key ministries have stalled the implementation of the deal that paves the way for a formation of a unity government mandated with a responsibility of reversing the country's decade economic slide.
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.