I’ve been distracted enough the last little while that I missed the latest news from Zimbabwe—which is a shame, because there’s actually some good news for once: Robert Mugabe has agreed to share power. I suspect that if there hadn’t been a split in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), he wouldn’t have agreed on these terms, because his party, ZANU-PF, will actually have a minority of the 31 cabinet seats, but because three of those seats will go to a breakaway faction of the MDC, ZANU-PF will still have a plurality. Mugabe will continue as president, but Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the MDC, “will become prime minister and chair a council of ministers supervising the cabinet” if the agreement goes through. That “if,” of course, is the silver lining to this cloud, because it’s a very real if; just because Mugabe has signed the deal doesn’t necessarily mean he intends to comply with it in any meaningful way. As always, the Devil is in the details; it’s one thing to agree to give up cabinet ministries to the opposition, and quite another to let important ones go, and the agreement could still come apart in consequence. The MDC, though, is clear on what they want:
The two political rivals met on Saturday and agreed to share out the cabinet posts. The powerful state security ministry was abolished while the justice portfolio was split into two and a new prisons department was created.The MDC wants to take control of ministries of home affairs in charge of the police, local government to oversee councils, one of the justice ministries, foreign affairs and the finance ministry—giving it responsibility for rescuing the shattered economy.In return, the MDC is ready to leave Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF in charge of other key ministries, including defence.
Unfortunately, with Mugabe telling members of his party that the agreement is a “humiliation” and insisting, “We remain in the driving seat,” he’s trying to avoid ceding any of the major ministries to the MDC; his aim is to try to give the appearance of power-sharing without giving up any real power. The agreement was brokered by Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, and now that Mbeki’s party (the African National Congress) has forced him to resign, Mugabe might be thinking that he can break the agreement and get away with it. One thing is certain: the MDC won’t go along with a farce.
Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for Tsvangirai’s MDC faction told the private SW Radio Africa Mugabe and Zanu PF wanted to take “all the key ministries, literally rendering the government exclusive . . . and we are not going to countenance that approach.”
No more they should. Yes, Mugabe can always refuse to cooperate, let the deal collapse and blame it on Tsvangirai, but not without consequences to himself. Inflation in Zimbabwe is over 11 million percent, and the country is in dire need of outside help—which it isn’t going to get if he goes back on this agreement. Keep praying for Zimbabwe, that the opposition would have the courage and will they need to stand strong, and that this time, Mugabe would fold.HT: Itayi