Robert Mugabe last night appeared to have ensured his political survival by splitting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

A senior member of Mr Mugabe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party said that the 84-year-old dictator had agreed to set up a coalition government with Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a breakaway faction of the MDC with ten seats in Parliament.

The terms of the deal were not clear, but it appeared to exclude Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the mainstream MDC who was denied victory in Zimbabwe’s recent presidential elections by vote-rigging, violence and intimidation.

Mr Tsvangirai left the Rainbow Towers hotel in Harare last night grim-faced and silent after three days of talks between himself, Mr Mugabe and Mr Mutambara, on ways to end Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis. The talks were mediated by Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s President.

The pact would restore the control of parliament that Zanu (PF) lost to the MDC in the March election. Together they would have 109 seats to Mr Tsvangirai’s 100. However, it do little to help a country saddled with the world’s highest inflation rate and lowest life expectancy after years of grotesque misrule.

It would certainly not persuade Western powers to give Zimbabwe the massive economic assistance that it needs to rebuild its shattered economy or to lift their targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime. At the very least they would demand Mr Mugabe surrender power, even if he retained the title of President.

Mr Mbeki confirmed that a deal had been struck, but held out hope that Mr Tsvangirai may yet have a role in the new government. “The point at which we are now is that we have dealt with all the critical elements on which President Mugabe and Mutambara agree, but there’s disagreement with one element over which Morgan Tsvangirai has asked for more time to reflect,” he said last night.

Mr Mbeki has always been extremely reluctant to criticise Mr Mugabe, whom he regards as a father figure, and would like to be able to present something to the Southern African Development Community summit which he will host this weekend.

For Mr Mutambara to have struck a deal with Mr Mugabe is remarkable. He has been highly critical of the President, and was briefly arrested in June for condemning his handling of the election. He backed Simba Makoni, a Zanu (PF) dissident, rather than Mr Tsvangirai in the first round of the presidential election The Zanu (PF) official said: “We and the MDC headed by Mutambara have signed the agreement. Tsvangirai did not sign the agreement because he is basically trying to take us back, to renegotiate issues that we had already agreed on. We are proceeding, and the President is going to form a government of national unity including members of the opposition.”

Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai had agreed that Mr Mugabe should remain President, with Mr Tsvangirai as Prime Minister, but as the talks dragged on MDC sources accused Mr Mugabe of refusing to surrender any real power to his nemesis. Zanu (PF) officials countered by accusing Mr Tsvangirai of “moving goal posts, forcing us to negotiate issues we had already agreed on”.

Mr Tsvangirai won the first round of the presidential election in March, but the Zimbabwe Election Commission announced that he had narrowly failed to win the outright majority required for victory. He pulled out of the second round days before the June vote after scores of MDC activists were killed and hundreds injured by Mr Mugabe’s thugs.

Earlier yesterday Mr Mugabe rewarded the men who helped him to steal the election by decorating or promoting them at a ceremony to honour Zimbabwe’s military. The beneficiaries included George Chiweshe, head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission; Happyton Bonyongwe, head of the Central Intelligence Organisation, which is accused of seizing, torturing and killing many MDC activists; and Paradzai Zimondi, the prison service chief who said he would never recognise a Tsvangirai victory.

A report from the New York watchdog Human Rights Watch yesterday said that the Mugabe regime was continuing to repress MDC activists even as it engaged in talks.

It claimed that hundreds of MDC activists remained in hiding, that Mr Mugabe’s thugs were continuing to terrorise rural areas, and that the regime had not dismantled its torture camps.

In the past four months pro-Zanu (PF) militias had killed 163 people and beaten or tortured 5,000 others. Of the 163 dead, 32 had been killed since June’s run-off vote.

Scientist masters the art of politics

— Born in May 1966, Arthur Mutambara was a former student leader who is recognised as one of Africa’s most prominent scientists

— Whilst at the University of Zimbabwe in the late 1980s Mr Mutambara led the student opposition to the ruling Zanu (PF) party

— After completing his doctorate at Oxford University he went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and became professor at several other universities in the United States

— The former academic, who leads the breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested in June for criticising Robert Mugabe’s handling of the elections in March in an article in the privately owned weekly, The Standard

Source: Reuters

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