The Zimbabwe opposition has declared power-sharing talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are deadlocked, but it has said it hopes the South African mediator can make progress.
Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai walked out after hours of talks on Thursday, directing reporters questions to his spokesman, Nelson Chamisa.
“We have reached a deadlock on all issues,” Chamisa said, saying at least 10 Cabinet posts remained in dispute.
PHOTO: EPA
He said they included the powerful ministries in charge of finance, police and the army — Mugabe is accused of using the latter two institutions to crush dissent.
Chamisa also said the factions could not agree on how to allot some governorships.
Chamisa said his faction hoped the mediator, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, could make headway.
Mugabe, who left about 45 minutes after Tsvangirai, did not refer to a deadlock, but told reporters differences remained and that talks would continue yesterday.
The opposition “has got their position, we have got our own position,” Mugabe said. “We’re always defending our position.”
The opposition has repeatedly accused Mugabe of trying to hold onto to too many key posts in the 31-member Cabinet agreed to in a Sept. 15 power-sharing deal. Under the deal, Mugabe’s party was to have 15 Cabinet posts, Tsvangirai’s 13 and the minor opposition faction led by Arthur Mutumbara three.
Without a political agreement, Zimbabwe has been rudderless as its economy collapses, and there were growing signs of impatience among ordinary Zimbabweans. Protesters gathered in the southern city of Bulawayo and outside the Harare hotel where negotiators met on Thursday, calling on the politicians to put their difference aside and begin addressing such issues as inflation, which is 231 million percent; shortages of food, medicine and most other basic goods; and growing hunger.
Politicians and generals who have long depended on Mugabe’s patronage are believed to be balking at losing their jobs.
Tsvangirai, too, is under pressure. The international community is unlikely to unlock much-needed aid and investment if Tsvangirai is seen as giving up too much, and his supporters at home already are worried he erred fatally by allowing Mugabe to retain any power.
Earlier on Thursday, the Herald quoted an unidentified official from Mugabe’s ruling party as saying compromises could be made in a Cabinet lineup Mugabe unilaterally announced last week. Mugabe had claimed the most powerful Cabinet posts for his own party, including the police ministry.
The optimism was dampened by later reports that Mugabe was only willing to share key posts, possibly by creating a system in which the same post would be rotated among politicians from the three parties.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
A rash of unexplained drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey has left locals rattled and sent US officials scrambling for answers. Breathless local news reports have amplified the anxious sky-gazing and wild speculation — interspersing blurry, dark clips from social media with irate locals calling for action. For weeks now, the distinctive blinking lights and whirling rotors of large uncrewed aerial vehicles have been spotted across the state west of New York. However, military brass, elected representatives and investigators have been unable to explain the recurring UFO phenomenon. Sam Lugo, 23, who works in the Club Studio gym in New Jersey’s Bergen
RSS