Posted on 06/24/2003 4:33:53 AM PDT by Clive
SOME senior ruling ZANU PF party officials attempted to lure opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders to agree to dialogue and possibly a power-sharing pact between the two parties while MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was in jail last week.
The plan, if it had succeeded, would have seen Tsvangirai and other MDC hard-liners sidelined while leaders of the opposition party considered to be moderate would have been given positions in a government of national unity in exchange for their backing for constitutional amendments to create an executive prime minister and a ceremonial president in a power-sharing arrangement.
The deal would also have smoothened President Robert Mugabe?s exit from politics, a source privy to the clandestine moves said yesterday.
ZANU PF national chairman John Nkomo refused to take questions on the matter, instead referring this paper to the ruling party?s spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira.
Shamuyarira could not be reached for comment on the issue by the time of going to print last night.
MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube confirmed that there had been moves to push for dialogue between the country?s two biggest political parties while Tsvangirai was away in prison but Ncube said his party had rejected negotiations when its leader was in jail.
Ncube said: "We were aware of those desperate moves from senior ZANU PF officials to push for dialogue in the past two weeks. The MDC would not engage in any form of dialogue while its leadership was incarcerated. Prisoners don't negotiate.
"If anybody thought that imprisoning Tsvangirai would soften the ground to initiate and expedite dialogue then that was misplaced hope. The jailed cannot negotiate with their jailers."
Tsvangirai was released on bail last Friday after spending two weeks in remand prison on fresh charges of treason for allegedly calling for Mugabe's unlawful removal from office. He denies the charge.
Talks between the MDC and ZANU PF to break Zimbabwe?s political impasse collapsed last year when the ruling party refused further dialogue unless Tsvangirai withdrew a court application challenging Mugabe's re-election in a controversial and violence-marred presidential ballot last year.
ZANU PF also wants Tsvangirai to recognise Mugabe as the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai and his MDC have refused to accept Mugabe's presidency and insist they will not withdraw their court application challenging his re-election.
The well-placed sources said rival camps in ZANU PF battling to position themselves to take over once and if the ageing Mugabe retired had pushed for Tsvangirai's detention with the hope of taking advantage of his absence to entice some of the senior but moderate officials in the MDC into hammering a secret power-sharing agreement.
A former trade unionist-turned-opposition politician, Tsvangirai is viewed by power brokers in ZANU PF as the stumbling block to resumption of dialogue that could lead to a power-sharing pact between ZANU PF and the MDC in which the latter would be a junior partner.
According to the sources, a delegation of church leaders had intensified moves to initiate dialogue between ZANU PF and the MDC after allegedly holding a meeting with Nkomo and Shamuyarira.
While the church delegation had in the past been trying to bring Zimbabwe?s political leaders to the table and may have sought genuine dialogue between ZANU PF and the MDC, ruling party officials are said to have attempted to use the opportunity to clinch a quick deal skewed in ZANU PF?s favour while Tsvangirai was in detention.
MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda directed the churchmen to talk to the opposition party?s national chairman Isaac Matongo and deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire over the resumption of dialogue.
Matongo is said to have told the clergymen that the MDC was committed to dialogue but would would not negotiate while Tsvangirai was behind bars.
Ncube is said to have followed up by writing to the clergymen the MDC?s refusal to engage ZANU PF in talks while its leader was not a free man.
Ncube, who himself was also arrested together with Tsvangirai but was later released, said: "The MDC is ready anytime, anywhere to engage in an unconditional dialogue to resolve Zimbabwe's deepening economic and political crisis.
"Any mediator or emissary is free to bring ZANU PF to the negotiating table as long as they understand and are clear that the MDC accepts unconditional dialogue."
The scheme often succeeds because the opposition leader sees it as a way to share power.
The result is always that the opposition gets co-opted and its cadre made irrelavant and its leader neutralized.
Morgan Tsvangirai knows this full well He has the experience of Joshua Nkomo and the ZAPU party before him.
Who knows what corrupting influence the acquisition of power in that mileau could have?
But that concern would obtain no matter who was leading the opposition.
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