Revealed: Details of Zimbabwe’s new power-sharing agreement

According to our sources, what has been crafted in the Zimbabwe case is a coalition deal that will be subject to a review in 18 months and subsequently after every one year.

“It is more or less an arrangement to manage Mugabe’s peaceful exit from the scene,” said Sydney Samvu, the International Crisis Group’s expert on Zimbabwe.

What caused Mugabe to agree to the power sharing arrangement? According to analysts, Mugabe realised that the country was on the brink of economic collapse and was soon going to find itself unable to pay salaries.

“He was faced with both an economic implosion and an uprising”, said Samvu. Some observers are of the view that Mugabe needed the MDC to sanitise his regime so that culpability for any future economic problems can be shared with the opposition.

The elections held in March deepened the country’s political and economic crises. Corruption and the repressive governance of President Robert Mugabe — in power for 28 years — and his ruling Zanu-PF-party bear primary responsibility for the severe economic slide, growing public discontent and international isolation of the country.

The annual inflation rate currently stands at about 11.2 million per cent, the world’s highest. Unemployment is over 85 per cent, poverty over 90 per cent, and foreign reserves almost depleted.

Over four million people are in desperate need of food. HIV/Aids and malnutrition kill thousands every month.

In the context of rapidly declining living standards, the government launched “Operation Murambatsvina” in 2005 to forcibly clear urban slums. The operation deprived more than 18 per cent of the population of homes or livelihoods and badly damaged the informal sector, the lifeline for many urban poor.

Up to a third of the population is thought to have fled the country and remittances from the growing diaspora have become the lifeline for those remaining.

On March 29, 2008, Zimbabwe held combined presidential and parliamentary elections already flawed by pre-poll manipulation.

Despite the skewed playing field, Zimbabwe’s people clearly signalled their rejection of a status quo characterised by political repression and economic decay.

For the first time, Zanu-PF lost control of parliament to the opposition MDC.

Results of the all-important presidential elections — withheld for over a month — gave MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai 47.9 per cent against 43.2 per cent for Mugabe, warranting a run-off.

The resurgent Tsvangirai claimed outright victory over the 84-year old president but has indicated he would contest an internationally supervised second round.

Though gravely weakened, Mugabe and his hardline supporters showed few signs of accepting defeat, launching a countrywide campaign of violence and intimidation.