Zimbabwe’s political leaders failed on Saturday to iron out differences that have held back a unity government aimed at ending the country’s political and economic turmoil, the opposition said.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC splinter group head Arthur Mutambara met to resolve differences over key ministries and governor posts, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
“There was deliberation but there was no agreement,” Chamisa said.
“Further consultations will take place with a view to try resolve the issues,” he said.
The parties had “a frank and realistic” exchange but the allocation of ministries such as home affairs and finance were still deadlocked, Chamisa said.
The failure to agree on the key posts has delayed the implementation of a unity government outlined in a power-sharing agreement signed by the three leaders last month.
“We hope that things will be resolved soon but the delay is a threat to people’s lives. People are dying ... the humanitarian response has to be activated and you need a functional government to do that,” Chamisa said.
“People are suffering in this country, the situation is catastrophic,” Chamisa said.
Mutambara’s spokesman Edwin Mushoriwa said the discussions were inconclusive and the unresolved issues were back with negotiators.
“The meeting took place at state house but the discussions were inconclusive in spite of claims by the principals that there were achievements,” he said.
“The negotiators are meeting to try and panel-beat the issues that have been left. The principals [the three leaders] understand the urgency of this matter that it has to be concluded,” he said.
A source close to the negotiations said Tsvangirai and Mutambara met before meeting Mugabe to come up with a joint position. The pair also met again after the meeting failed to lead to an agreement.
The South African government said on Friday that former president Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the power-sharing deal, had agreed to resume his mediation to resolve the crisis.
“We will issue a statement when he does go,” Mbeki’s spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said on Saturday.
Under the deal brokered by South African, Mugabe will remain as head of state after nearly three decades in power while Tsvangirai is to take up a new post of prime minister and Mutambara will be a deputy prime minister.
The deal was heralded as an historic initiative to resolve Zimbabwe’s political deadlock and economic meltdown.
Once one of Africa’s most prosperous countries, Zimbabwe now suffers the world’s highest rate of inflation, last estimated at 11.2 million percent, leaving 80 percent of the population living in poverty.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS