He was taken in a white Toyota with registration number is AAP 4851. We understand that they are taking him to Marondera, where there is notorious torture and interogation base, the same place MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti was taken upon his return from South Africa. Details to follow .
(SW Radio Africa: We believe arrest warrants have been issued for election expert Topper Whitehead and MDC MP for Marondera, Ian Kay. We also believe the leaders of the three political parties are in an emergency meeting and the swearing in of the Cabinet is delayed.)
]]>A Zimbabwean judge has dropped charges of treason against the secretary general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Tendai Biti.
He had faced a possible death sentence after being accused of plotting a coup against President Robert Mugabe.
But Magistrate Olivia Mariga said prosecutors appeared unprepared to proceed against Mr Biti.
It could be a sign that the ruling Zanu-PF wants a proposed coalition government to work, say correspondents.
Ms Mariga also ruled Mr Biti had been improperly arrested when he was detained in June, in part over a document purporting to lay out opposition plans to overthrow the government.
The document has since been widely dismissed as fraudulent.
But Ms Mariga said prosecutors could still revive the case by issuing a summons.
“God has prevailed,” Mr Biti told MDC supporters gathered at the court, according to the South Africa-based website ZimOnline.
BBC
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is due to sign into law a constitutional amendment allowing his rival Morgan Tsvangirai to become prime minister.
It paves the way for the men to share power, as agreed last September.
Meanwhile, a judge has dismissed treason charges against a key opposition MDC figure, removing another obstacle to forming a unity government.
The MDC also wants all of its jailed supporters and activists to be freed before Mr Tsvangirai takes office.
He is due to be sworn in next Wednesday, 11 February, with Mr Mugabe remaining as president.
Last week, southern African leaders, who have been mediating the deal, persuaded Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to join a unity administration despite their concerns over Zanu-PF’s commitment to sharing power.
Correspondents say the judge’s decision to dismiss Tendai Biti’s treason case could be a sign that Zanu-PF wants the proposed coalition government to work.
Magistrate Olivia Mariga ruled he had been improperly arrested.
But state prosecutors can still revive the case by issuing a summons.
Mr Biti, who is the MDC’s secretary-general and was the party’s chief negotiator of the power-sharing deal, was arrested in June.
He was accused of announcing March’s presidential poll result before the official electoral body, which took more than a month to make its announcement, as well as publishing false statements and insulting the president. The MDC says the official results were rigged.
The months of wrangling between Zanu-PF and MDC centred on how the most powerful cabinet posts were to be shared out - especially that of the Home Affairs, which controls the police, and will now be a shared ministry.
Zimbabwean political analyst John Makumbe told the BBC a key objective of the new administration will be to draw up a new constitution - within 12 to 18 months.
This would need to be passed by a referendum before new elections.
But before that, he said, negotiators still had to work out the allocation of governors and the setting up of a National Security Council.
“I’m giving this marriage a chance, because it has the potential of succeeding if the people involved realise the hardships the people of Zimbabwe are experiencing and decide in favour of the people’s welfare,” he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
“It also gives the MDC an opportunity to slowly and incrementally nudge Zanu-PF and Robert Mugabe out of office.”
Investors invited
The unity government is intended to ease Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown but this will be largely dependent on the restoration of foreign aid and investment.
Donors say they will only resume aid when the government is working properly and they see powers are being shared.
Zimbabwe’s parliament unanimously approved the constitutional amendment - in a rare show of unity - on Thursday.
The chief whip of the main faction of the opposition MDC, Innocent Gonese, said the party had no choice.
“If you look at the state of our economy, if you look at the suffering of our people, I think this was the only way to go,” he told the BBC.
“But I believe that this is just a beginning. Obviously there are going to be some difficulties ahead, but I think that if we all put Zimbabwe first, before we put our heads together, I believe that we can overcome all the difficulties.”
Zimbabwe’s Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga called for investors to return.
“We will respect property rights; we will respect the issue of declaration and repatriation of dividends,” he said.
“So really we are inviting people in manufacturing, in tourism, in farming, in mining.”
Many investors have pulled out of Zimbabwe over the government’s seizure of white-owned farms since 2000.
Mr Mugabe’s critics say this triggered Zimbabwe’s economic collapse, although the president blames Western sanctions.
Zimbabwe has stopped publishing annual inflation figures - the most recent, from July 2008, were 231 million per cent.
As a result, the currency is rapidly losing its value. The government last week announced that it would accept the use of foreign currencies, such as the US dollar and the South African rand, which were already widely used on the black market.
Donors say more than half of the population needs food aid.
An outbreak of cholera, fuelled by the collapse of infrastructure, has now infected nearly 66,000 people and killed more than 3,300.
Mr Tsvangirai won the first round of presidential elections last March, but pulled out of a run-off against Mr Mugabe in June, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters.
BBC
By U.S. Department of State
THE Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has agreed to join a unity government with Robert Mugabe under the conditions called for in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) January 27 Communiqué.
The success or failure of such a government will depend on credible and inclusive power sharing by Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party.
The international community must remain engaged and continue to scrutinize actions by Mr. Mugabe to ensure adherence to the letter and spirit of this agreement, including respect for human rights and the rule of law.
We urge SADC to fulfill its obligation to guarantee that Mr. Mugabe proceeds on a new path toward reconciliation and genuine partnership with the MDC.
The U.S. will only consider new development assistance and easing of targeted sanctions when we have seen evidence of true power sharing as well as inclusive and effective governance.
We will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the Zimbabwean people in their time of suffering.
*STATEMENT BY ROBERT A. WOOD, ACTING SPOKESMAN
Zimbabwe Journalists
Zimbabwe’s cholera crisis has reached unprecedented levels with nearly 63,000 people being infected by the epidemic, according to a report by a United Nations agency.
The epidemic, which began in August, has already killed more than 3,000 people - the deadliest outbreak in Africa in 15 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
The report said lack of awareness about the disease, inaccessibility to clean water and medicine shortages have made stopping the spread of cholera impossible.
UN figures show only 23 per cent of the population has access to safe drinking water - a percentage likely to be worsening because of drought.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said more than one million people were at high risk of infection in the absence of safe drinking water.
More than 70 per cent of springs, irrigation canals and rivers around the country have dried up.
Eric Laroche, the assistant director-general of the WHO, has called for drastic action to be taken over the cholera outbreak.
Laroche warned the outbreak would continue unless “political differences are put aside,” impoverished Zimbabwean health workers are paid, and the country’s health system is bolstered.
In one area of the country visited by an Al Jazeera correspondent, state morgues have stopped functioning and communities were burying bodies that had been lying there for more than a year.
Bright Matonga, Zimbabwe’s deputy information minister, said the bodies were not those of cholera vicitms.
“The report that you have just aired refers to bodies that were not collected from the mortuary since January 2008, [and] there was no cholera at that time,” he told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
“We had a cholera outbreak. It was very intense at the end of last year. We called for help and the help came from the World Health Organisation and other NGOs. Really the situation now has improved vastly.
“We are able to quickly detect, quickly prevent, quickly educate people. We are on top of the situation although you can never say it is under control. “
Paul Garwood, a WHO spokesman, told Al Jazeera “we are in the middle of a major outbreak and we are seeing increasing cases”.
“On most days the outbreak is on a national scale with cases being recorded in eight of the country’s 10 provinces,” he said.
“It’s not yet under control. There are intensive efforts to try and bring it under control. It must be realised that this is an extraordinary outbreak - a public health emergency - and an extraordinary response is required.”
Overloaded medical services have also been hit after health workers went on strike to demand higher wages.
Zimbabwe suffers the second-worst maternal mortality rate in the world after Sierra Leone with about 130 out of every 1,000 babies dying shortly after birth, experts say.
Hyperinflation and a downward-spiralling economy have added to the humanitarian disaster.
With an official inflation rate of 231 trillion, the Zimbabwean dollar has been rendered practically worthless, leading to severe shortages of food and foreign exchange.
Zimbabwe’s central bank devalued its dollar on Monday by 12 zeros, turning one trillion dollars into one dollar, and issuing seven new notes in an attempt to counter the economic degradation.
The crisis also comes amid a backdrop of political deadlock.
Robert Mugabe, the president, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, are just beginning to agree on a power-sharing deal after disputed elections in March last year.
The sticking point has been the distribution of key ministerial positions within the government between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change.
Zimbabwe Journalists
Zimbabwe is revaluing its dollar again, removing twelve zeros from the currency with immediate effect. The country’s central bank is introducing seven new notes in an effort to stave off economic collapse. The country is in the grip of world-record hyperinflation. The most recent estimate in July 2008 put it at 231m%. Only last month, a Z$100 trillion note was introduced and the government moved to allow people to use foreign currencies alongside Zimbabwe’s dollar. The announcement will see Z$1 trillion reduced to Z$1. The denominations of the new notes are Z$1, Z$5, Z$10, Z$20, Z$50, Z$100 and Z$500.
The governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, said: “Yesterday’s trillionaires, I am sorry, will not be able to buy their favourite drink today,” according to the AFP news agency. Mr Gono gave no updated inflation figures. Last year, the central bank was forced to take 10 zeros from the local unit in an effort to make the currency more manageable, but the zeros returned within a few months. On Sunday, US$1 (£0.71) was equal to Z$3 or Z$4 trillion.
In a separate bid to tackle inflation, the government last month allowed businesses to charge in foreign currencies and said those businesses could pay their workers in foreign currency. Until then, only licensed businesses could accept foreign currencies, although it was common practice. The government added that the country’s stock exchange, which has not traded for two months, would also be licensed to trade in foreign currency, once listed firms and the exchange provide evaluation criteria.
Humanitarian crisis
John Robertson, a leading Harare-based economist, said Mr Gono’s latest statement contained some positive measures but did not go far enough. “It would appear he is trying to restore the Zimbabwean dollar, but, given the choice of multiple currencies, who would want to trade in Zimbabwe dollars?” he told the Reuters news agency.
Zimbabwe is also facing a deepening humanitarian crisis. A cholera outbreak has killed more than 3,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. And the World Food Programme says seven million Zimbabweans are in need of food aid, up from 5.1 million in June. The country’s situation has been worsened by the political crisis that resulted from last year’s disputed presidential elections.
But last week, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said his party would join a unity government with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF. After the announcement, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan led calls for world leaders to help rebuild Zimbabwe’s economy.
BBC News
President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai have been ordered by the Sadc leaders to form a unity government this comes after a summit which was aimed at solving the Zimbabwe crisis.
The emergency summit decided that Tsvangirai should be sworn in by 11 February to rule Zimbabwe alongside Mugabe, said Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao.
The swearing in of cabinet ministers two days later would “conclude the process of the formation of the inclusive government”, Salomao added, reading a statement of resolutions after 14 hours of talks.
The 15-member Sadc bloc, of which 84-year-old Mugabe is also a member, met after negotiations last week in Harare failed despite the increasing urgency of a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 2800 people.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a deal last September to form a new government but the pact has floundered over disputes on key posts.
But South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who chairs the Sadc bloc, was confident of breakthrough in the four month stand-off after the summit delegates set the deadline.
“Yes, of course,” he told reporters Tuesday morning when asked if the Zimbabwe parties had agreed to join the unity government.
To form new government
“They will present themselves on the set date for the swearing in and then proceed to form the government,” he said.
The unresolved power-sharing issues sank talks in Harare last week, with Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF on Monday threatening to go ahead with a new government if the fresh efforts failed to end the dispute.
Negotiators from both parties will now meet immediately to consider a national security council bill submitted by Tsvangirai’s party, as well as a formula for the distribution of provincial governors, Sadc resolved.
However, the bloc again resolved that the contentious home affairs ministry should be co-shared — a proposal previously rejected by the MDC — and reviewed six months after the new government was inaugurated.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the resolutions were less than what the party had hoped for and that the party would later define its position.
“Quite clearly, the conclusions reached as reflected in the communique fall far short of our expectations,” the party said in a statement.
“It is important that finality be brought to this issue and therefore our national council will meet this weekend to define the party position.”
Increasing international pressure
Mugabe faced increasing international pressure on Monday with fresh European Union sanctions on his rule, and calls from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for regional leaders to do more.
“Clinton is very focused on this issue. She’s very concerned about it,” spokesperson Robert Wood told reporters in Washington.
“Certainly the membership of Sadc can do more,” Wood said of the Sadc bloc, which is chaired by heavyweight South Africa.
“We encourage South Africa to do as much as it can to try to put pressure on Mugabe to do the right thing. But to date, Mugabe hasn’t seemed to have any interest whatsoever in bringing about an end to the crisis in this country,” he said.
March’s first round presidential election, in which Tsvangirai placed first but did not win an outright majority, was followed by a brutal wave of political violence.
Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off, citing violence against his supporters, leaving Mugabe to declare a one-sided victory in June.
Since then Zimbabwe has plunged deeper into ecomomic crisis with massive unemployment and crippling hyper-inflation, and half the population dependent on food aid.
IAfrica
President Obama wants a fresh approach to toppling Robert Mugabe and is discussing with aides an unprecedented, US-led diplomatic push to get tough new UN sanctions imposed against the Zimbabwe regime, The Times has learned.
During talks Mr Obama has had with his top Africa advisers in recent weeks, the central idea they focused on was taking the issue of Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council, but for the first time to combine such a move with an intense diplomatic effort to persuade Russia and China not to block the initiative.
According to a senior aide present at the discussions, the goal of taking the issue of Zimbabwe to the Security Council would be to pass a series of “strong” sanctions, including a ban on arms sales and foreign investment. They also want to expand significantly the number of ruling Zanu-PF party officials subject to sanctions.
Last July, after Mr Mugabe was accused of rigging the elections to stay in power, China and Russia, who have significant financial interests in Zimbabwe, vetoed moves to impose UN sanctions. Mr Obama and his aides believe that, with the growing international outcry over conditions there and the devastating loss of life from the cholera outbreak, Beijing and Moscow can now be persuaded at the very least to abstain when the issue of sanctions comes to another vote.
“It is predicated on China and Russia going along and this Administration will certainly undertake a new round of constructive diplomacy with Russia and China on a whole range of options,” the aide told The Times. “It will depend on an arc of Obama diplomacy in the coming months.”
Pressure on China and Russia will also be coordinated with Britain and France at the UN. “To get even an abstention would be a tremendous victory,” the aide said.
A key figure in any new approach will be Susan Rice, Mr Obama’s UN ambassador, who was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Clinton administration and is a Zimbabwe expert.
“Susan is extremely aware of what is going on in Zimbabwe and she feels very strongly that there is a tremendous miscarriage of justice in that country and that it has to end,” the aide said. “Once she has her feet on the ground she is going to turn her attention to this issue.”
During her Senate confirmation hearings earlier this month, Dr Rice said that the US would take a leading role at the UN in tackling the “thorny challenges of peacekeeping in the context of Darfur and Congo and the autocracy in the context of Zimbabwe”.
Mr Obama and Dr Rice are also understood to be anxious that Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, does not agree to a power-sharing deal with Mr Mugabe that has been under negotiation for weeks.
They and other Western diplomats were encouraged by the collapse of talks yesterday that regional leaders had convened to make progress on the main issues blocking the formation of a unity government. Mr Tsvangirai was offered the option of sharing with Mr Mugabe, but the opposition leader refused to accept because he was not given control over the Zimbabwean police - the main tool of oppression in the country.
Leaders of the MDC reacted angrily to claims by southern African mediators that an agreement had been brokered to form a unity government by the middle of next month. They accused the Southern African Development Community (SADC) of trying to railroad them into a deal that kept the main levers of power in Mr Mugabe’s hands.
The US and Britain are anxious that Mr Tsvangirai does not weaken and sign up to a power-sharing deal because the failure to reach an accord helps clear the way to take the issue back to the UN. Zimbabwe will again be discussed at the African Union’s annual summit this week, in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, but little progress is expected to be made.
“We have leverage over Russia and we are working on China,” one diplomat told The Times. “If SADC talks fail, then the African Union fails, then the deal is dead in the water and the way is clear to take the issue back to the Security Council.”
Significantly South Africa, which is viewed by Western diplomats as an “enabler” of Mr Mugabe and unwilling to take him on, has stepped down as one of the Security Council’s non-permanent members and can no longer lobby China and Russia for an alternative approach, which it has done in the past.
TimesOnline
President Obama wants a fresh approach to toppling Robert Mugabe and is discussing with aides an unprecedented, US-led diplomatic push to get tough new UN sanctions imposed against the Zimbabwe regime, The Times has learned.
During talks Mr Obama has had with his top Africa advisers in recent weeks, the central idea they focused on was taking the issue of Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council, but for the first time to combine such a move with an intense diplomatic effort to persuade Russia and China not to block the initiative.
According to a senior aide present at the discussions, the goal of taking the issue of Zimbabwe to the Security Council would be to pass a series of “strong” sanctions, including a ban on arms sales and foreign investment. They also want to expand significantly the number of ruling Zanu-PF party officials subject to sanctions.
Last July, after Mr Mugabe was accused of rigging the elections to stay in power, China and Russia, who have significant financial interests in Zimbabwe, vetoed moves to impose UN sanctions. Mr Obama and his aides believe that, with the growing international outcry over conditions there and the devastating loss of life from the cholera outbreak, Beijing and Moscow can now be persuaded at the very least to abstain when the issue of sanctions comes to another vote.
“It is predicated on China and Russia going along and this Administration will certainly undertake a new round of constructive diplomacy with Russia and China on a whole range of options,” the aide told The Times. “It will depend on an arc of Obama diplomacy in the coming months.”
Pressure on China and Russia will also be coordinated with Britain and France at the UN. “To get even an abstention would be a tremendous victory,” the aide said.
A key figure in any new approach will be Susan Rice, Mr Obama’s UN ambassador, who was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Clinton administration and is a Zimbabwe expert.
“Susan is extremely aware of what is going on in Zimbabwe and she feels very strongly that there is a tremendous miscarriage of justice in that country and that it has to end,” the aide said. “Once she has her feet on the ground she is going to turn her attention to this issue.”
During her Senate confirmation hearings earlier this month, Dr Rice said that the US would take a leading role at the UN in tackling the “thorny challenges of peacekeeping in the context of Darfur and Congo and the autocracy in the context of Zimbabwe”.
Mr Obama and Dr Rice are also understood to be anxious that Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, does not agree to a power-sharing deal with Mr Mugabe that has been under negotiation for weeks.
They and other Western diplomats were encouraged by the collapse of talks yesterday that regional leaders had convened to make progress on the main issues blocking the formation of a unity government. Mr Tsvangirai was offered the option of sharing with Mr Mugabe, but the opposition leader refused to accept because he was not given control over the Zimbabwean police - the main tool of oppression in the country.
Leaders of the MDC reacted angrily to claims by southern African mediators that an agreement had been brokered to form a unity government by the middle of next month. They accused the Southern African Development Community (SADC) of trying to railroad them into a deal that kept the main levers of power in Mr Mugabe’s hands.
The US and Britain are anxious that Mr Tsvangirai does not weaken and sign up to a power-sharing deal because the failure to reach an accord helps clear the way to take the issue back to the UN. Zimbabwe will again be discussed at the African Union’s annual summit this week, in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, but little progress is expected to be made.
“We have leverage over Russia and we are working on China,” one diplomat told The Times. “If SADC talks fail, then the African Union fails, then the deal is dead in the water and the way is clear to take the issue back to the Security Council.”
Significantly South Africa, which is viewed by Western diplomats as an “enabler” of Mr Mugabe and unwilling to take him on, has stepped down as one of the Security Council’s non-permanent members and can no longer lobby China and Russia for an alternative approach, which it has done in the past.
TimesOnline
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday he hoped that a power-sharing agreement with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would lead to a “new chapter.”
“We hope that this will open a up a new chapter in our political relations in the country and in structures of government,” Mugabe said in remarks at Harare airport on arriving from a regional emergency summit on Zimbabwe held in South Africa.
“We agreed that an inclusive government should be formed. Dates have been stipulated for the various acts… starting with swearing-in of the top people, the prime minister, deputy prime ministers and ministers,” Mugabe told state-run television.
“We will look at the concerns that the MDC raised regarding governors and other appointments.”
Mugabe also said he hoped a parliamentary amendment would “lead to the legalisation of the agreement.”
Southern African leaders on Tuesday laid out a timeline for the formation of a long-awaited national unity government sharing power between veteran Mugabe and political foe Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The MDC said that Southern African Development Community decisions fell “far short of our expectations.”
Although the MDC declined to say if it rejected or accepted the outcome of the summit, for the first time it indicated that it would subject the decisions to the final say of its highest decision-making body, which meets on Friday.
Some of the demands include equitable allocation of ministries, the appointment of key government positions, the release of activists and opposition members being detained, and a definition of national Security Council legislation.
Since last March after the elections, Zimbabwe has plunged deeper into economic crisis with massive unemployment, crippling hyper-inflation, a cholera epidemic and half its population dependent on food aid.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed the power-sharing deal in September, but disagreements over the allocation of posts have stalled the formation of a national unity government.
IAfrica
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday he hoped that a power-sharing agreement with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would lead to a “new chapter.”
“We hope that this will open a up a new chapter in our political relations in the country and in structures of government,” Mugabe said in remarks at Harare airport on arriving from a regional emergency summit on Zimbabwe held in South Africa.
“We agreed that an inclusive government should be formed. Dates have been stipulated for the various acts… starting with swearing-in of the top people, the prime minister, deputy prime ministers and ministers,” Mugabe told state-run television.
“We will look at the concerns that the MDC raised regarding governors and other appointments.”
Mugabe also said he hoped a parliamentary amendment would “lead to the legalisation of the agreement.”
Southern African leaders on Tuesday laid out a timeline for the formation of a long-awaited national unity government sharing power between veteran Mugabe and political foe Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The MDC said that Southern African Development Community decisions fell “far short of our expectations.”
Although the MDC declined to say if it rejected or accepted the outcome of the summit, for the first time it indicated that it would subject the decisions to the final say of its highest decision-making body, which meets on Friday.
Some of the demands include equitable allocation of ministries, the appointment of key government positions, the release of activists and opposition members being detained, and a definition of national Security Council legislation.
Since last March after the elections, Zimbabwe has plunged deeper into economic crisis with massive unemployment, crippling hyper-inflation, a cholera epidemic and half its population dependent on food aid.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed the power-sharing deal in September, but disagreements over the allocation of posts have stalled the formation of a national unity government.
IAfrica
Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders have given Zimbabwe political leaders until 5 February 2009 to pass Constitutional Amendment 19.
Constitutional Amendment 19 makes provision for the creation of the post of prime minister and deputy prime minister for Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, respectively.
Addressing local and international media early Tuesday morning after over 12 hours around the negotiation table, SADC Executive Secretary Dr Tomaz Salomao said the people of Zimbabwe are faced with very difficult challenges that require an inclusive government.
“The extraordinary summit decided ... the parties shall endeavour to cause Parliament to pass the Constitutional Amendment 19 by 5 February 2009.
“The prime minister and deputy ministers shall be sworn in by 11 February 2009.
“The minister and deputy minister shall be sworn in on 13 February 2009, which will conclude the process of the formation of the inclusive government,” Dr Salomao said.
The executive secretary of SADC also told media that the regional organisation again endorsed a previous decision for the co-sharing of the Home Affairs portfolio by MDC and Zanu-PF, which will then be reviewed six months after an inclusive government is formed.
The appointment of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank governor and the Attorney General will also be dealt with after the inclusive government’s formation, Dr Salomao explained.
Current SADC Chairperson President Motlanthe told media the mood behind closed doors was one of great urgency and seriousness aimed at a breaking the political deadlock.
“There was a deep sense of urgency, seriousness and frankness ... the talks went on so long because all SADC members were given the opportunity to ask questions and were given detailed answers, after which they could then submit their recommendations.
“[This was done] so that when consensus was arrived at that no question remained unanswered,” Mr Motlanthe said.
SADC facilitator and former President Thabo Mbeki joked with media as to why they were still awake so early in the morning, going on to say, however, that the summit continued for such an extended period of time due to questions and recommendations to the SADC secretariat by member states.
A report detailing what has happened in Zimbabwe’s political landscape since the last extraordinary SADC summit on 9 November 2008 was given to SADC members at Monday’s summit, Mr Mbeki said.
Not present at the media briefing following the marathon talks was leader of the bigger MDC faction Mr Tsvangirai.
At the previous SADC summit in Johannesburg on 9 November 2008, Mr Tsvangirai lambasted SADC leadership for their inability to bring about a resolution to the political crisis in Zimbabwe.
“A great opportunity has been missed by the Southern African Development Community [SADC] to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe.
“We are shocked and saddened that the [Extraordinary Heads of State and Government] SADC Summit has failed to deal with outstanding issues,” the prime minister designate said in November last year.
President Motlanthe highlighted that Mr Tsvangirai had again, as at the previous SADC summit, refused to co-manage the Home Affairs portfolio with the Zanu-PF.
The SADC secretariat, however, again decided that the Home Affairs portfolio would be co-managed by the two parties and then reviewed after six months of an inclusive government having been formed, Mr Motlanthe said.
Bua News
“We cannot continue talking and talking and talking without concretely proceeding to the implementation stage,” said South African President Kgalema Motlanthe at the latest round of Sadc-sponsored Zimbabwe talks.
Southern African leaders remained locked in marathon talks early on Tuesday in a fresh push to end Zimbabwe’s political deadlock between President Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai.
The 15-nation Southern African Development Community (Sadc) leaders are trying to salvage a power-sharing deal signed last September, after another round of mediated talks collapsed in Harare last week.
In his opening address, South African President Kgalema Motlanthe called for the summit to resolve the political stand-off, which has seen Zimbabwe plunge further into economic crisis amid a deadly cholera epidemic.
Motlanthe said questions were continuously raised about Zimbabwe in Africa, with the expectation that the country’s leaders under Sadc’s aegis would resolve the impasse.
“I trust that we will not fail them,” he said.
Increasing international pressure
Mugabe faced increasing international pressure on Monday with fresh European Union sanctions on his rule, and calls from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for regional leaders to do more.
“Clinton is very focused on this issue. She’s very concerned about it,” spokesperson Robert Wood told reporters in Washington.
“Certainly the membership of Sadc can do more,” Wood said of the Sadc bloc, which is chaired by heavyweight South Africa.
“We encourage South Africa to do as much as it can to try to put pressure on Mugabe to do the right thing. But to date, Mugabe hasn’t seemed to have any interest whatsoever in bringing about an end to the crisis in this country,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, police fired rubber bullets to break up a protest by several hundred people in Pretoria, witnesses said.
No arrests were made but seven people were taken to hospital for treatment.
Regional leaders see a unity government — that leaves Mugabe as president and creates a new prime minister post for Tsvangirai — as the best chance to end Zimbabwe’s political and economic crises.
But the pact has floundered over which party will control top public posts, including the home affairs ministry, which oversees the police.
Mugabe to go at it alone
Earlier, Mugabe’s deputy information minister sought to pile pressure on MDC leader Tsvangirai to accept a deal by saying the veteran president was ready to go it alone.
“This summit is the last summit that is going to discuss this issue of an inclusive government,” deputy information minister Bright Matonga told South African public radio.
“If it does not work today, definitely when the president comes back here (Harare), he has to form a new government with or without Morgan Tsvangirai.
EU foreign ministers on Monday tightened sanctions on Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe, putting European companies on the banned list for the first time, amid growing frustration about human rights and political abuses.
The widened sanctions bring the number of people on the list to over 200.
March’s first round presidential election, in which Tsvangirai placed first but did not win an outright majority, was followed by a brutal wave of political violence.
Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off, citing violence against his supporters, leaving Mugabe to declare a one-sided victory in June.
Since then Zimbabwe has plunged deeper into crisis amid massive unemployment and crippling hyper-inflation, with half the population dependent on food aid.
IAfrica
Police in South Africa fired rubber bullets at hundreds of people protesting outside government buildings over the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe, injuring at least one.
The protest took place around a kilometre from where Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was meeting with his southern African counterparts and his arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai about the political impasse in his country.
Around 600 supporters of the Save Zimbabwe Now movement, an umbrella group of civil society and church groups, marched on government buildings to protest what they perceive as South Africa’s kid-gloves treatment of Mugabe.
At least one person was injured when police opened fire on the peaceful demonstration, witnesses said. The protestors did not have a permit to demonstrate at the building.
One of the march organizers also said she saw people being arrested.
Save Zimbabwe Now is organizing a series of fasts, hunger strikes and demonstrations to highlight the plight of Zimbabweans.
Monsters & Critics