*MDC says no progress, no movement in talks* ** *By Violet Gonda 12 April 2010*
The MDC-T has said ‘no movement’ has been made in the inter-party negotiations that ended two weeks ago. The National Executive were briefed during a meeting on Friday, on the issues covered in the final report of the Global Political Agreement talks between ZANU PF and the two MDC formations. Party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told SW Radio Africa on Monday: “It’s sad to note that there seems to be no progress, no movement on key issues that we have always flagged. That is issues to do with the provincial governors, issues to do with Roy Bennett, and the Attorney General and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s offices. We are still where we were, possibly before President Zuma came to Harare.” Chamisa said the political parties in the inclusive government have agreed to disagree and the issues are now with the facilitator, South African President Jacob Zuma, and the Southern African Development Community, the guarantors of the Zimbabwean deal. The political formations have been squabbling since signing the GPA in September 2008 and Zimbabweans are still waiting for an official statement to be made on the progress of the talks. The state controlled Sunday Mail newspaper reported that the three parties have resolved 24 out of the 27 sticking points, contradicting most observers to the talks. Chamisa said contrary to earlier statements this latest report on the talks will not be made public, at least in the short term, claiming it is to ‘protect and safeguard the integrity of the negotiations’, saying; “But by divulging that there is no progress we have actually done justice to members of the public who may actually want to know what is happening. There hasn’t been any movement of significant note other than on issues that are possibly not very substantial around the Electoral Act, but in terms of the issues that have always been on the table they remain as was, and that’s where we are.” This is in stark contrast to statements made by President Zuma at the end of his two day visit to Zimbabwe last month where he said the parties had agreed to a ‘package of measures’ to help rescue the fragile unity government. However Chamisa said there had been ‘correct body language and signals after Zuma’s visit, ‘but what we are beginning to see is actually a negation of the perception we had built earlier on. So I must say we really are worried about the developments because everything seems to be now arrested and this has also, in a way, arrested matters of governance.” Despite this general lack of progress in the implementation of the GPA, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is set to travel to Europe later this month, to reportedly campaign for the removal of the targeted sanctions that are still in place on Robert Mugabe and his inner circle. But Chamisa said it was a ‘gross misrepresentation of facts’ that the MDC was travelling to Europe to call for the removal of the sanctions. He said: “We have no obligation at all to be accused of being the authors of the misfortunes that have affected people in ZANU PF and equally we do not want to be held accountable or to be asked to do things that we were not responsible for in the first place. So this is all media hype and we are not going to lead any committee as a party.” But he said there is indeed a ‘government committee’ that is going to Europe on issues of ‘re-engaging’ with the west. Meanwhile the MDC-T has written a letter to the ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe indicating its ‘displeasure’ at the conduct of its youth leader Julius Malema, who seems to be ‘excitable and trigger happy’. Just days after returning to South Africa from Zimbabwe, where he was a guest of ZANU PF, the controversial ANC youth president criticized the MDC at a press conference in Johannesburg. Chamisa said: “Malema’s utterances complicate the negotiation process. We have said we want to understand if there is a distinction between ANC policy and the outbursts of this young person.” The MDC spokesperson went on to say: “Unfortunately we have no kind words for such a young man who seems to have that misunderstanding of politics and comedy. He doesn’t know the difference between the two.” http://www.swradioafrica.com/news120410/mdcsays120410.htm -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
