Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday that there was no progress in power-sharing talks with the ruling ZANU PF party, in a statement that appears to signal the collapse of the latest effort to save Zimbabwe’s fragile power-sharing deal.
Tsvangirai blamed lack of progress on intransigence by ZANU PF and on the incompetence of mediator and former South African President Thabo Mbeki who he said should recuse himself from the process because he did “not appear to understand how desperate the problem in Zimbabwe is”
The opposition chief said his MDC party signed the power-sharing agreement with ZANU PF two months ago in the hope that President Robert Mugabe’s party was ready to cooperate to end Zimbabwe’s multi-faceted crisis.
“Sadly, their (ZANU PF) intransigence to date is making that appear increasingly unlikely,” said Tsvangirai.
The MDC leader said the party was not withdrawing from negotiations but added that in the “in the absence of any progress in the talks,” the opposition would rather refocus attention to tackling Zimbabwe’s worsening humanitarian crisis.
ZANU PF chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa and Mbeki’s spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga were not immediately available for a response to Tsvangirai’s statement.
Source African Press Agency
