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African Regional News Updates |
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19 May 2009 Harare — ZANU-PF and MDC have
described as premature an MDC-T national executive
resolution on Sunday to refer outstanding issues in
the Global Political Agreement to Sadc and the African
Union for arbitration, saying the three parties'
principals have not declared a deadlock.
Responding to the MDC-T resolution to refer the
issues to the guarantors of the September 15 Global
Political Agreement, the parties said President Mugabe,
Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister
Mutambara should, however, resolve the outstanding
issues.
Zanu-PF negotiator in the dialogue that led to the
political settlement Cde Nicholas Goche yesterday said
the discussions between the principals have not yet
reached a stage where there was need for arbitration.
He said the fact that PM Tsvangirai indicated that
95 percent of the issues had been resolved meant the
discussions were close to conclusion.
"The principals have not yet declared a deadlock
and this means some progress has been made during
their meetings.
"The Prime Minister says a lot of ground has been
covered and do we need Sadc or the African Union to
arbitrate over 5 percent of the remaining issues?" Cde
Goche said.
PM Tsvangirai told the media in South Africa
recently that significant progress had been made in
discussions with President Mugabe and DPM Mutambara.
He also added that no deadline had been set for the
principals with his office indicating that an
announcement on the outstanding issues was due soon.
MDC spokesperson Mr Edwin Mushoriwa concurred with
the Zanu-PF position, adding that there was, however,
need for a speedy resolution of the outstanding
issues.
"The outstanding issues cannot remain unresolved
because they are now overshadowing issues of
delivery," he said.
Mr Mushoriwa said since the principals have not
declared a deadlock, it meant they were still
discussing the issues.
"The principals have had to cancel several meetings
because of other commitments, but we want them to
resolve these issues.
"The inclusive Government has gone for more than
100 days but instead of concentrating on service
delivery, we are still talking of outstanding issues,"
he said.
Mr Mushoriwa said it would be unfortunate to have
to call for the intervention of the guarantors of the
power-sharing agreement.
PM Tsvangirai on Sunday succumbed to pressure from
his party to refer the issue to Sadc and the AU even
though the principals have not declared a deadlock.
He said as a "worker" of the party, he was bound by
the decision to refer the matter to Sadc and the AU.
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