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DEAL at last! Zimbabwe's three main political parties, Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC. last night reached an agreement to form an all-inclusive Government following months of negotiations...according to The Herald
Announcing the conclusion of the talks last night, Sadc-appointed mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki said President Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara had "unanimously" endorsed a final political settlement that will be unveiled to the public on Monday.
The parties would over this weekend work out the composition of the new Government and stressed that its priority would be to turn around the economy with emphasis on food security.
Regional and continental leaders are expected to attend the official signing ceremony scheduled to start at 10am in Harare.
President Mbeki urged the international community to respect the agreement as it represented the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe.
"I would like to announce that we have concluded the negotiations that the parties have been engaged in. An agreement has been reached (and) there will be a signing ceremony at 10 o'clock in Harare.
"The documents that have been agreed on and signed by the principals today will be officially signed at a ceremony to be attended by regional and continental leaders to express their support for this agreement," he said.
"The parties have taken these negotiations seriously because of the need and desire to find a lasting solution to the challenges being faced by the country.
"It is an agreement that is unanimous, without any reservations. We have been working with the Government of Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe and with the support of the region and the continent we will mobilise resources to assist Zimbabwe to recover.
"We hope that everybody in the international community will respect this agreement, lend their support and extend the necessary hand of support for the country to recover from its socio-economic challenges.
"We are confident that our friends will respond so that this political agreement succeeds. All the parties are motivated by the desire to find a solution to the economic challenges.
"Just today, we were discussing the forthcoming agricultural season and the need to have seed, fertilizer and all the necessary inputs so that next year we will not have a problem of food security," he said.
The South African leader said, as facilitators, they were pleased by repeated statements of commitment to the success of the talks by the parties.
"We have been involved in a number of negotiations across Africa, in Lesotho, Burundi, the DRC, the Comoros, Cote d�Ivoire, and elsewhere and we have always been confident that this dialogue process would succeed.
"We have been particularly pleased, however, by the repeated commitment shown by the parties here for the talks to succeed. Like all dialogue processes, the parties came and presented their positions and people give and take and in the end they have reached an agreement."
President Mbeki said they were confident that the deal would hold as it was coming from the people of Zimbabwe and represented their aspirations as a nation.
He said he had not been distracted by criticism from detractors who said his "quiet diplomacy" was not achieving any results.
"Well, we never paid any particular attention to criticism about the so-called quiet diplomacy. All diplomacy is quiet. If it isn�t quiet, then it is not diplomacy.
"We understood what was required to produce a positive outcome when we were asked by Sadc to facilitate dialogue. We have handled negotiations elsewhere in exactly the same way.
"But for some strange reason, we cannot understand what was perfectly acceptable in other places in Africa was not acceptable in Zimbabwe. But we did not let this distract us from our purpose," he said.
President Mbeki said South Africa had taken up the task to facilitate the dialogue with the full realisation that as neighbours, negative developments in one country affected the other.
"You should know that we have been involved in the political situation in Zimbabwe since 1998. In 2001 Sadc Heads of State were here in this same building on the same day, September 11 discussing the political situation and seven years later we are back to conclude this process.
"So we have always been involved and as a neighbour we do not need any encouragement from anybody to assist a brother."
Tsvangirai, who was the first to leave the venue of the negotiations, gave a brief statement to the media saying a deal had been reached.
"All I can tell you right now is that we have got a deal."
No comment could be obtained from Mutambara.
President Mbeki returned to South Africa last night and will be returning to Harare on Monday |
