Zimbabwe's MDC relents; votes to join Mugabe government (2nd Roundup)

By Clare Byrne Jan 30, 2009, 14:36 GMT

Zimbabwe\'s President Robert Mugabe attends a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Extra-ordinary Summit in Pretoria, South Africa, 26 January 2009. EPA/JON HRUSA

Johannesburg/Harare - Zimbabwe's longtime opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday voted to go into government with President Robert Mugabe Zanu-PF, ending the party's nearly five-month campaign for a more equitable power-sharing deal.

The party's national council ratified the move to implement a September power-sharing accord signed by Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, despite previous misgivings within the party about the skewed nature of the deal.

The MDC's 60-member national council had voted 'to restate its commitment to the (September) Global Political Agreement and commit to be part of the inclusive government,' Tsvangirai told reporters.

The decision was taken in 'full unanimity,' MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa added.

The MDC however cited three conditions for joining the government - the release of all political prisoners by February 11, a review of the distribution of posts of provincial governors and the drafting of legislation to revamp national security.

Questioned about whether these were make-or-break conditions, Tsvangirai said: 'These issues must be cleared. Of course they will be cleared.'

Outside party headquarters, a crowd of 500 onlookers erupted into a roar of approval when Tsvangirai, speaking from the back of a pick- up truck with a loudspeaker, announced the breakthrough.

Under the accord, Mugabe remains president and Tsvangirai becomes prime minister of a unity government of 31 ministries. Tsvangirai is slated to be sworn in as prime minister by February 11, ending his 10 years in opposition.

The vote was a crucial test of Tsvangirai's leadership of the MDC, after he ceded to pressure from Mugabe and Zimbabwe's neighbours at a summit this week to join the government, despite Mugabe refusing to budge on some key demands.

These included control of the hotly disputed home affairs ministry. The MDC had previously demanded to control the ministry, which governs the police, after agreeing to allow Zanu-PF retain control of defence.

Zanu-PF refused and demanded a co-ministering arrangement. With the support of South Africa and other regional powers, Mugabe prevailed.

As things stand, Zanu-PF will control 13.5 ministries that include all the most important portfolios, except finance.

That dossier, described by some as a poisoned chalice given the dire straits of Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary economy, goes to the MDC, which has a tally of 14.5 ministries. The remaining three ministries go to a splinter MDC faction led by science professor Arthur Mutambara.

Western observers are sceptical about the viability of the arrangement, which allows Mugabe to retain much of his power despite placing second to Tsvangirai in the first round of last year's presidential elections.

Mugabe, who has led the country for 29 years, won a discredited run-off round after Tsvangirai pulled out of the vote to protest the killing of over 100 of his supporters.

'It's nowhere near what we wanted to see,' one Western diplomat in Johannesburg told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity. 'It's just possible it could work but we're pretty sceptical.'

While acknowledging that 'there will certainly have to be massive aid into Zimbabwe,' Western governments would be loath to stump up huge sums while controversial central bank governor Gideon Gono, a Mugabe ally that he recently reappointed to another five-year term, was still holding the purse strings, he said.

Under Gono's watch, Zimbabwe's inflation has reached world-record levels - estimated in the billions of per cent.

Famine now stalks large tracts of the country and some 60,000 people are infected with cholera, a diarrhoeal disease caused by the collapse of sanitation and water supply systems that has killed over 3,000 people since August.

The unity deal will be reviewed by an inter-party monitoring committee in six months. That committee, which is made up of four members from each of the three parties, was launched on Friday.