THE two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are seething with anger ahead of the make-or-break Monday meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ on Politics, Security and Defence over what they perceive as bias on the part of the facilitator, Thabo Mbeki, in favour of President Robert Mugabe.
Details of the former South African president's mediation effort leaked to The Financial Gazette following his week-long visit that culminated in the dispute over the allocation of ministries being referred to the SADC Troika indicate that Mbeki believes President Mugabe's plan is sufficient to pacify the two MDCs.
Sources privy to the stop-go negotiations said Mbeki's view is likely to resonate with the members of the SADC Troika, comprising Angola, Mozambique and Swaziland, which would be represented at the meeting by Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini.
President Mugabe had agreed to cede the Finance Ministry to the MDC-T and had no problem with his party sharing the Home Affairs Ministry with Morgan Tsvangirai's faction.
But this week the MDC said the details contained in a document entitled "Reflections and Proposals of the Facilitation: Towards the Achievement of the Objectives of Equity and power-sharing in the Constitution of the Inclusive Government in Harare", buttressed its claims that Mbeki should be replaced as mediator in the eight-year-long crisis for being partisan.
"This document proves what we have been saying, that Mbeki is not an honest broker," said Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of the MDC-T. "He wants us to rubber-stamp the allocation of ministries as ZANU-PF deems fit. As I have mentioned before, we refuse to ride a bicycle without wheels," he added.
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, deputy secretary general of the MDC-Mutambara, said her political formation was aware of Mbeki's proposals.
"But we are going to be putting our responses on Monday next week before and in the presence of the Troika," she said.
"However, I am not in a position to say whether we agree or disagree with contents of the Mbeki statement," added Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
Patrick Chinamasa, the ZANU-PF chief negotiator, was not immediately available for comment at the time of going to print.
The Financial Gazette can reveal that Mbeki, who returned home last Saturday after the three principals to the power-sharing deal reached a stalemate, saw no problem in ZANU-PF being allocated about 10 ministries the MDC-T considered key to the economic turn-around and political transformation of the country.
These included the contentious ministries of Home Affairs, Defence, National Security, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Local Government and Land Resettlement.
There is also a dispute over the appointment of 10 provincial governors and delays in issuing Tsvangirai a replacement passport.
An eight-page document Mbeki circulated among the three parties last Friday as the basis of his proposals was almost in sync with the list of ministries gazetted by President Mugabe on October 10, before the talks began.
In the document dated October 17, Mbeki says the priority tasks agreed by the parties when they signed the power-sharing agreement defined which, among the various portfolios, would serve as Ministries.
He groups the priority tasks into seven categories: adoption of a new constitution, rule of law, restoration of economic stability, the land question, state organs and institutions, delivery of social services and national healing, cohesion and unity.
He proposes the allocation to the MDC-T of the Ministry of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, responsible for overseeing an envisaged new constitution-building process.
Mbeki also proposed the Ministry of Home Affairs be co-chaired "since all the parties recognised the rights of all citizens to a safe and secure environment in which the police service plays an important part, both ZANU-PF and MDC-T share the responsibility."
He says the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotions, allocated to the MDC T, would play the leading role in the overall development and implementation of the Economic Plan within which the all-inclusive government will pursue the objective of economic recovery.
Mbeki proposed that eight other ministries directly relevant to the recovery of the economy be allocated to ZANU-PF, four to MDC-T and two to the MDC-M.
Under the set up, ZANU-PF would have Transport, Local Government, Urban and Rural Development, Mines, Mining Development, Lands and Resettlement, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, Tourism and Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development while MDC-T takes Energy and Power Development, State Enterprises and Parastatals, Information Communication Technology and Public Works.
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