THE principals in the inclusive government are close to declaring a stalemate on the outstanding issues of the global political agreement (GPA), a move that will result in the intervention of Sadc to break the impasse, the Zimbabwe Independent learnt yesterday.
Impeccable sources in government said President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara met for the fifth time within a fortnight on Tuesday and failed to agree on the way forward.
The sources said the three were refusing to compromise on their positions on the sticking points, among them the reappointment of ambassadors, permanent secretaries and provincial governors.
The other outstanding issues are the reappointment of central bank governor Gideon Gono and the appointment of Attorney-General Johannes Tomana. Now there is the hiving off of communications from the Ministry of Information Communication Technology run by Nelson Chamisa of the MDC-T.
“No progress was made during the Tuesday meeting,” one of the sources said. “It (meeting) revealed that Mugabe on the one side, and Tsvangirai and Mutambara on the other, are poles apart on the outstanding issues and the expectation is that the principals would declare a deadlock when they meet again next week.”
The principals, the sources said, were not compromising on the outstanding matters.
The declaration of a stalemate would result in Sadc, which guaranteed the GPA signed last September, moving in to resolve the impasse and save the inclusive government.
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Tsvangirai’s spokesperson James Maridadi yesterday said the principals would meet either on Monday or Tuesday to continue deliberations on the sticking points.
“The information I have is that there was some progress on some issues and areas of disagreements on others when the principals met on Tuesday,” Maridadi said. “They will continue with negotiations either on Monday or Tuesday.”
However, insiders said there was no progress to talk about in the negotiations. Meetings have broken up amid rising tensions.
BY CONSTANTINE CHIMAKURE
