World News

Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Deal Deadlocks On Monday, before presidents, prime ministers and a king who had gathered from across southern Africa, Mr. Mugabe agreed to a deal that requires him to relinquish some of his powers for the first time in 28 years in office. But he and Mr. Tsvangirai had yet to agree on how to divide the ministries. “We hope a resolution to the impasse will be found soon,” said an opposition spokesman, Nelson Chamisa. “There is no way Mugabe can keep all the key ministries.” Patrick Chinamasa, one of Mr. Mugabe’s negotiators, said that the effort to divide the ministries had been “laborious” and that the negotiating teams had been asked to seek a resolution. Mr. Mugabe is to leave Friday for the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. The power-sharing agreement gives Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party 15 ministries, compared with 16 for the combined opposition. That means many of Mr. Mugabe’s loyalists will lose positions of power and substantial perks. With a fierce contest going on within ZANU-PF over who will eventually succeed him, Mr. Mugabe, who is 84, faces the tricky task of placating the warring factions in his own party. He met this week with the party’s politburo and faced irate charges from one of his vice presidents, Joseph Msika, that he had given too much authority to Mr. Tsvangirai, according to two senior politburo members who were present. Under the deal signed Monday, Mr. Tsvangirai, as prime minister, is to devise and carry out government policies as head of a council of the 31 ministers, though Mr. Mugabe, as president, is to retain the final word. Before, Mr. Msika and the other vice president, Joyce Mujuru, had the responsibilities now delegated to Mr. Tsvangirai, 56, a charismatic former trade union leader who has built a formidable political base as Mr. Mugabe’s persistent rival. “Msika was shaking with rage,” said one of the politburo members, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were secret. “He told the meeting that Mugabe sold out. His main bitterness was that he and Mujuru no longer wield power as vice presidents.” Politburo members loyal to a former army general, Solomon Mujuru, accused Mr. Mugabe of planning to give most of the choice ministerial appointments to allies of a rival, Emerson Mnangagwa, who led the bloody campaign to intimidate the opposition after Mr. Tsvangirai outpolled Mr. Mugabe in March in the first round of elections. Mr. Mugabe is not only seeking control of the army and the police force, but also of finance, foreign affairs, information, mines, land, agriculture and justice, an opposition official said. Those portfolios would leave him in charge of the ruined economy and the decision on whether to prosecute members of his government implicated in human rights violations. Mr. Tsvangirai has assured Mr. Mugabe and the men in charge of the military and the police that they will not face criminal charges, a step that the opposition felt was necessary to avoid a possible coup. The opposition sees control of at least one arm of the state security services as essential to restoring the rule of law. Andrew Chadwick, who has worked as a political consultant to the opposition, said civil servants would be able to act independently if the police were no longer Mr. Mugabe’s enforcers. “If people get the courage to speak out, knowing that if they get beaten they can go to the police, I can see them really beginning to turn their backs on ZANU-PF,” he said. The deal and dividing control of the major ministries is part of what he called “a process to change the whole power structure of the country and the way it’s governed.”