THE inter-party talks between the three governing parties are set to resume in Harare tomorrow, with Zanu PF and the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai still stuck in their parallel positions.

MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa yesterday said they would now inform South African President Jacob Zuma that they had reached a deadlock.

Zuma was appointed by Sadc to help resolve outstanding issues in the implementation of the global political agreement (GPA).

“There is now disenchantment over these talks about talks.

If we cannot agree, we have to agree that we can’t agree,” Chamisa said.

“Clearly there is disagreement on the issues; Zanu PF continues to dig in.

“The matter is now in the court of Sadc. We now wait to hear from Sadc through the facilitator, President Zuma.

“Continuing to talk about talks is unhelpful.”

But Edwin Mushoriwa, spokesperson for the MDC formation led by Deputy PM Arthur Mutambara, said it was “premature for people to give up on the negotiations”.

“As a party, our position is that we have no option as a country but to work together,” Mushoriwa said.

“We are pushing to get them (Zanu PF and MDC-T) to reach a compromise.

“We are trying by all means to reason with our counterparts to look at the bigger picture and find common ground.”

Zuma last week dispatched his facilitation team of Lindiwe Zulu, Mac Maharaj and Charles Nqakula to Harare.

The team returned home empty-handed.

On Friday Zanu PF’s central committee endorsed a politburo decision that the party would not make any compromises unless Western sanctions on the country were removed.

“Our supporters are disappointed and we have asked our leader Morgan Tsvangirai to inform the other principals that we are no longer interested in continuation of the talks,” Chamisa told journalists on Friday.

Last month, Zuma recommended that the parties should “park” some of the contentious issues and proceed with the holding of fresh elections next year.

But the holding of elections is largely dependent on the completion of a new constitution and other democratic measures.

By The Standard