Mutambara clashes with Tsvangirai

THE leaders of the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change party, clashed yesterday over the allocation of Cabinet positions as it became clear that the leader of the larger formation was trying to takeover positions reserved for the smaller faction, the Zimbabwe Guardian is reliably informed.

Morgan Tsvangirai met separately with the leader of the smaller formation of the MDC, Arthur Mutambara on Monday to try and adopt a common position on the issue of Cabinet posts.

The meeting, this reporter is reliably informed, would have led to the issuance of a position document blaming President Robert for the delay in formation of Cabinet.

The two parties would then hold a press conference announcing that Zanu PF was to blame for the delay.

The whole arrangement crumbled after it became clear to Mutambara that Tsvangirai was interested in filling the Cabinet positions that had already been allocated to his formation.

Mutambara is said to have walked out of the meeting citing insincerity on the part of the Tsvangirai MDC.

The power-sharing negotiations hit a snag on Tuesday when the MDC formations and Zanu PF failed to agree on the allocation of Cabinet posts. The Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa issued a statement saying such delays when not unusual and negotiations were continuing. He blamed the MDC-T party for negotiating through the public and the media.

“The MDC is prejudicing talks by trying to negotiate in public. That will not assist the process,” said Chinamasa adding that such a move was a “sure way of collapsing the negotiations”.

The MDC-T Secretary General, Tendai Biti told Reuters news agency that a deadlock had been reached after the negotiating teams met on Tuesday.

“We met again today but couldn’t move the process forward,” Biti told Reuters refuting a statement from his own party’s information department.

Yesterday’s development is likely to jeopardise further negotiations as Mutambara is reportedly furious at Tsvangirai. A joint statement they had agreed to issue blaming Zanu PF for stalling Cabinet formation will now probably see the light of day.

Insider sources say MPs in the Tsvangirai MDC were unhappy with the inclusion of the Mutambara MDC leadership into the power-sharing arrangement and the allocation of Cabinet posts. An MDC-T party insider told the Zimbabwe Guardian: “Most of our MPs are clearly not happy with this arrangement that rewards people who lost in elections.”

Referring to the Mutambara MDC leadership the insider further stated: “None of the leaders of the Mutambara MDC won in their constituency, why should they get top positions in the power-sharing arrangement?”

The two MDCs have now issued separate statements regarding the supposed press conference. Mutambara’s spokesman Edwin Mushoriwa denied that there was a scheduled press conference, while the MDC-T spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said they had, “called this Press conference to give our position on the talks” adding that they had “just received information from (their) secretary-general — who is one of our negotiators — that they have been called to continue with consultations.”

Mushoriwa denied that the two parties were meant to address a press conference attacking President Mugabe and the Zanu PF party for delaying Cabinet formation. He dismissed the allegation as "news to me".

In a separate conflicting statement, Chamisa told the Herald that negotiations will now continue with the ruling Zanu PF party without the need for a press conference.

The MDC-T spokesman also told VOA News on Wednesday that the parties to the talks were now “metres apart”.

"If we were centimeters apart, now we are meters apart," Chamisa said, "the gap is increasing by the day, the misunderstanding seems to have grown even sharper. I don't know how we are going to solve this but certainly the situation is that we'll have to refer this to Sadc and the AU to resolve the current impasse because there is nothing other than mediation that is going to help the situation."

On the same day Chamisa also told Reuters news agency that, “There has been a new development. Our negotiating team has just been advised that there is a consultative meeting. Our negotiating team and the Zanu PF negotiating team are meeting.”

The three main parties are now scheduled to meet Thursday to continue with the discussions.