Zimbabwe : Coalition Deal Finalized

By Farid Omar

After months of bitter wrangles on how the most powerful cabinet posts were to be shared out in Zimbabwe's coalition government deal, Southern African leaders, who have been mediating for a durable settlement have persuaded Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to join a joint administration despite their concerns over Zanu-PF's commitment to sharing power. The power-sharing deal was agreed in September 2008 but has been mired by bitter disputes.

In light of this new development, Zimbabwe's parliament has unanimously approved a constitutional amendment allowing opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to become prime minister.

Mr Mugabe is expected to sign the amendment on Friday and Mr Tsvangirai is due to be sworn in on 11 February.

Negotiators are still trying to hammer out who gets what ahead of the unity government taking over on 13 February.

Months after the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) signed a power sharing-deal; Zimbabwe still doesn’t have a new coalition cabinet in place. Under the power-sharing deal, Mugabe is supposed to remain President and Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, is to become Prime Minister.

Zanu-PF and the MDC have been unable to agree on how to divide cabinet posts. The MDC insists that it should take control of the Home Affairs Ministry which controls the police. This, the MDC claims, would help curtail the harassment of its leaders and supporters.

The MDC has often accused Mugabe of not being sincere about power-sharing, saying that despite the deal, its supporters, party officials and human rights activists are still being abducted.

But Zanu-PF has long maintained that its security operations directed at subversive elements within MDC ranks are aimed at defending Zimbabwe's sovereignty against imperialist detractors. It views the neo-liberal oriented MDC as a reactionary force working in collusion with western imperialism. Zimbabwe, President Mugabe insists, will never bow down to imperialist interests.

Further, Zanu-PF has stated that it is committed to a power-sharing deal, pointing to last month's sacking by President Mugabe of nine cabinet ministers and three deputy ministers. All the sacked ministers had lost their seats in the last March polls.

On the economic front, President Mugabe has blamed the economic sanctions imposed by western powers as the primary cause of Zimbabwe's worsening economic conditions. Zimbabwe has been hit by a hyper inflation that is spiraling out of control.

On the cholera situation, the United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon has announced Robert Mugabe's agreement to allow a delegation of UN experts into the country to study the solutions which could be employed to stop the disease from spreading.

While Western governments blame the epidemic on the collapse of Zimbabwe’s health and sanitation system, the Zimbabwe government has blamed the outbreak on the British, stating that it is “a calculated terrorist attack on Zimbabwe”.

Last month, the Zimbabwe Herald quoted the information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, as blaming cholera on “serious biological chemical war... a genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British.”