HARARE – Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and South African leader Jacob Zuma look headed for collision at the SADC summit, with statements by senior aides indicating the two men are worlds apart in their assessment of progress made by Zimbabwe's troubled inclusive government.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit will discuss the Harare power-sharing government as well as Zimbabwe's refusal to adhere to rulings by the bloc’s human rights court or tribunal.

Tsvangirai’s MDC and the South African government have in days leading to the summit that opens in Namibia tomorrow issued conflicting statements on progress made by the GNU, with Pretoria’s foreign ministry director general Ayanda Ntsaluba last Thursday telling journalists that Zuma will tell the meeting that Zimbabwe is "on the correct path."

But MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that his party sharply differed with the South Africans’ assessment of the situation in Zimbabwe, adding that there were a cocktail of outstanding issues from the 2008 global political agreement (GPA) that gave birth to the unity government last year.

Correct path
Chamisa said Zimbabwe was not on the “correct path” and said the MDC would insist that SADC intervenes to ensure President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF) live up to all their commitments under the GPA.

"Evidently there are still outstanding issues, issues where there is a deadlock, issues that were agreed on but that Zanu (PF) refuses to implement and toxic and corrosive issues,” said Chamisa, who speaks on behalf of the party and not its President Tsvangirai.

"President Zuma, as the mediator, has been engaged with the three principals to the GPA and is aware of all the problems. All these issues are also contained in a letter sent to President Zuma," added Chamisa.

He said the MDC wants the SADC to intervene to ensure Roy Bennett is appointed to the post of deputy agriculture minister. The former opposition party also wants regional leaders to pressure Mugabe to rescind his decision to unilaterally appoint his allies, Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana, as Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor and Attorney General respectively.

The appointments are in breach of a communiqué issued by the SADC on January
27, 2009, requiring Mugabe to consult Tsvangirai before appoint senior public officials.

Chamisa said the MDC expects the SADC to resolve all the three deadlocked issues once and for all.

But it is an expectation that could see Tsvangirai and Zuma clashing at the summit, with Ntsaluba’s statement that Zuma will tell the regional leaders that Zimbabwe is on the right path seen as indication that South Africa might not prefer the summit to dwell too much on the difficulties of the Harare government.

Outstanding issues
Ntsaluba told reporters in Pretoria that the overwhelming picture in Zimbabwe's GNU was favourable. "There is a semblance of stability and Zimbabwe is on the correct
path," he said.

And Zanu (PF) was quick to seize on Ntsaluba’s comments, with party spokesman Rugare Gumbo telling reporters last Friday that there are no outstanding issues for SADC to discuss.

He said, “there are no outstanding issues. The situation in the country has generally
improved. We don’t expect any major development from the SADC summit, SADC is busy pre-occupied with other important issues from the region. They will not spend much time discussing with the Zimbabwe issue, because there are other important issues."

Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara have through Zuma’s mediation reached common position on most of the issues they had initially differed on except on the three most important points of disagreement to do with the key government appointments and the pace of democratic reforms.

Chamisa said the MDC was more concerned with issues that the principals have agreed on but which Zanu (PF) continued to refuse to implement.

He cited as examples the reform of ZBC and The Herald newspaper, saying the principals have agreed that the government-owned but Zanu (PF)-controlled broadcaster and newspaper to stop hate language against the MDC and its leaders but this has not been implemented.

Elections
Chamisa also said that despite an agreement on security sector reforms, the Joint Operations Command, a shadowy security think-tank, continued to meet with Mugabe behind Tsvangirai's back. While the meetings of the new security think-tank that should have replaced the JOC, the National Security Council have been intermittent.

"We will also report to SADC the infrastructure of violence that Zanu has revived in the rural areas to intimidate the people," Chamisa said.

Chamisa said the MDC wanted to emerge from the SADC summit with a clear election calendar, with firm dates for elections. "We need clear time frames," Chamisa said.

He said his party would also request a "permanent SADC observer mission to be stationed in Zimbabwe for at least twelve months, six months before the election and six months after."

By The Zimbabwean