Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party sat down yesterday for face-to-face talks with the bruised and battered Zimbabwean Opposition at a secret location outside Pretoria.

The negotiations that Mr Mugabe once vowed would never take place finally began around noon after high-level delegations travelled separately to neighbouring South Africa, the host and main mediator.

Such is the sensitivity about the talks that authorities imposed a news blackout on the event but local media quoted well-informed sources as saying that a deal could be reached before the end of a two-week deadline.

Mukoni Ratshitanga, President Mbeki’s official spokesman, told reporters: “Full-on talks are under way.” He said that the agenda and the venue were secret but he expressed confidence that the talks would be concluded swiftly. Mr Ratshitanga admitted that the discussions could run over the allotted time schedule agreed in a memorandum of understanding signed on Monday in Harare. “It does not mean, if the talks are not done in two weeks, that the talks will collapse,” he said.

Preliminary talks began on Tuesday after the much-ridiculed Mr Mbeki secured a framework deal between Mr Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and a smaller breakaway faction led by Arthur Mutumbara.

The Opposition and much of the rest of the world do not recognise Mr Mugabe’s re-election last month in a presidential run-off poll that was boycotted by the MDC after Zanu (PF) unleashed a campaign of intimidation against its supporters. The MDC says that 120 of its supporters have been killed since the first round of voting.

The main aim of the talks is the creation of a government of national unity and an end to violence. The main sticking points are over who should lead it. Mr Tsvangirai wants his undisputed victory in the first round on March 29 to be recognised as the true reflection of the will of the Zimbabwean people. He opposes a move to allow Mr Mugabe to stay on for two years before fresh elections, when he would stand down for good.

Sources close to the talks say that since Britain and the United States failed ten days ago to obtain UN Security Council backing for much tougher sanctions against the Mugabe regime, Mr Tsvangirai has moderated his tone and looks set to accept the position of executive prime minister. Mr Mbeki called in favours from China and Russia, which signed a massive platinum mining deal with South Africa recently, to veto the UN proposal, which he argued would scupper his attempt to hold the current talks.

The issue is now over who receives other key ministries. “Mugabe wants to keep the Foreign Ministry, Internal Affairs and Security — that is unacceptable to the MDC, which sees itself as the real winner,” a diplomatic source close to the talks said. The Zimbabwean political analyst Eldred Masunungure said that a breakthrough in talks was possible. Mr Mbeki, the official mediator of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), wants to conclude a deal before his country takes over the presidency of the regional grouping at a summit on August 16.

Mr Masunungure said: “A breakthrough is a reasonable possibility, even in two weeks. This is essentially the second phase of the SADC-mediated process, the first phase having started in March 2007.”

The state-run Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald reported yesterday that the decision-making politburo of Zanu (PF) met on Wednesday and gave party negotiators approval to continue with the talks.

Road to negotiations

March 29 Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party claim victory after Zimbabweans go to the polls

April 3 MDC offices are raided and farms attacked

May 16 Election officials announce that a presidential run-off will take place on June 27

June 6 Police ban Mr Tsvangirai from holding election rallies

June 22 Mr Tsvangirai pulls out of the election, branding it “a violent, illegitimate sham”

June 29 Robert Mugabe declared winner. Sworn in for five-year term

July 1 Mugabe spokesman rejects idea of power sharing

July 21 Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai sign deal setting out framework for formal talks

July 24 Talks begin in earnest

Source: Times Archive

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