Guarded welcome for Zimbabwe's powersharing deal

ZIMBABWE:ZIMBABWE'S NEW powersharing deal was met with cautious optimism by world leaders yesterday who say they want to know the agreement's details before endorsing it.

The country's rival political party leaders made the historic powersharing breakthrough late on Thursday following almost two months of difficult negotiations mediated by South African president Thabo Mbeki under a Southern African Development Community mandate.

It was feared that the two main sides - President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - would be unable to agree on how to divide power in a unity government because of their bitter, confrontational history.

Nevertheless, Mr Mbeki announced that a deal had been done and he was "absolutely certain that the leadership of Zimbabwe is committed to implementing these agreements", details of which will be revealed on Monday.

In the meantime, it is being reported that Mr Mugabe will retain his title of president, remain in control of the army and chair cabinet meetings.

Mr Tsvangirai as prime minister will chair a new council of ministers that will govern on a day-to-day basis and will have control of the police force, which Mr Mugabe's regime had used to terrorise MDC supporters.

There will be 31 cabinet portfolios, according to reports, with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF getting 15, Mr Tsvangirai's MDC getting 13 and the remaining three going to Arthur Mutambara's splinter MDC faction.

The MDC is said to be getting eight deputy ministries, compared with Zanu-PF's six, with one going to Mr Mutambara's faction.

Senator David Coltart, secretary for legal affairs in the MDC faction, said the deal would allow the creation of an inclusive government which would initiate a process of constitutional reform lasting 18 months.

"If the two MDC factions work together, which they must in the national interest, they will enjoy a majority in cabinet," Mr Coltart said.

Upon hearing of the breakthrough the European Commission expressed cautious optimism, but said it wanted to see how the agreement played out before planning a new approach to the country, which needs multimillion-euro investment to turn around its crippled economy.

"The European Commission of course welcomes this significant step forward," said John Clancy, commission spokesman on humanitarian aid and development issues.

"However we will have to wait to learn much more about this on Monday.

"At this stage we are cautiously optimistic. Our main concern is that any solution is a positive solution for the people of Zimbabwe, that it offers them a better future than obviously they've been living through in recent times," he added.

The EU had been expected to extend its sanctions over members of Zimbabwe's ruling party, but following the breakthrough it said it was reconsidering its plans.

Proposals had been drawn up last Thursday to extend the existing visa ban and assets freeze sanctions to 10 more individuals in Zimbabwe on Monday. More than 130 Zimbabweans are already on the banned list, including Mr Mugabe and his wife Grace.

In Africa the deal was viewed more optimistically. Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga said yesterday: "Today the people of Zimbabwe breathe a little bit easier. The news of the powersharing agreement that has just been concluded ends a long spell of fear, suffering and uncertainty.

"I hope this agreement will lead to a durable peace and an improvement in the people's living standards and human rights."

Zimbabweans hope the settlement will free their leaders to address the country's chronic economic problems, which include having the world's highest inflation rate at 11 million per cent and widespread food and fuel shortages.

Up until now international investors have been wary of committing resources to aid a turnaround because of the political uncertainty.

Although western governments have said they will help with grants and loans, they are not willing to deal with Mr Mugabe, who they believe stole the recent presidential election in June through violence and intimidation.