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Mugabe swears in vice-presidents before talks

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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has sworn in two vice-presidents ahead of talks on forming a cabinet, a government official said on Monday, a move that could further endanger power-sharing negotiations.

It follows Mugabe’s allocation of important ministries to his ZANU-PF party at the weekend, angering the opposition. The MDC said it doubted mediation by former South African President Thabo Mbeki on Monday would be able to get ZANU-PF to compromise.

A senior government official told Reuters “The two vice-presidents were sworn in this morning because their positions are not in dispute.”

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Sunday his party could walk away from a power-sharing deal he signed with Mugabe if Mbeki’s latest mediation effort failed to end a deadlock on how to divide key ministries.

“The visit provides a platform and opportunity for ZANU-PF to reverse its unilateral action,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. “The ZANU-PF mindset is not consistent with power-sharing. It cannot be power-sharing when one party controls all key ministries.”

Mbeki, who scored his biggest diplomatic coup last month when he nudged Zimbabwe’s bitter political rivals to sign a power-sharing deal, is expected in Harare later on Monday.

A government notice on Saturday showed Mugabe had allocated three key ministries to his ZANU-PF party, drawing fire from the opposition and threatening the fragile pact.

Zimbabwe’s economy has continued to implode, with the number of people in need of food aid rising by the day, adding to the woes of a country suffering staggering inflation of 230 million percent, the highest in the world.

Tsvangirai said on Sunday he would continue negotiating to try to reach an agreement but added that the country’s 10 posts of provincial governors should be shared between ZANU-PF, a splinter MDC group and his party.

While the parties have been at loggerheads since the signing of the September 15 pact on how to divide up 31 cabinet posts, this has angered Zimbabweans who had hoped the deal would bring an end to years of economic misery.

Under the deal, Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980, retains the presidency and chairs the cabinet. Tsvangirai, as prime minister, will head a council of ministers supervising the cabinet.

ZANU-PF will have 15 seats in the cabinet, Tsvangirai’s MDC 13 and a splinter MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara three posts, giving the opposition a combined majority.
Reuters

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92 COMMENTS

  3. A warning and a lesson to Mother Zambia, because in real democracy you don’t have these kind of shades….Power sharing from where…let people’s choice rule!!!

  7. I CAN FORESEE THE SAME SITUATION HAPPENING IN ZAMBIA. WITH THREATS FROM SATA THAT HE WILL NOT ACCEPT DEFEAT, A KENYAN AND ZIMBABWEAN SITUATION WILL MIGHT HAPPEN. ZAMBIANS PLEASE VOTE WISELY AND SAVE US FROM THE WRATH OF THE SNAKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE……

  10. typical African politics, the ruling party will always have things their way. even here mmd cant be disloged from power. not with a selfish en divided opposition as ours.

  11. one can just wonder at baba sekulu mugabe, he does not care for his zimbabwean pipo but puts his interest first.plize zambians lets not try this unified govt lets just accept the outcome becuase God is the rewarder those who rig will face there end sadly.

  18. BOB’s cancer of political homosexuality has spread to the neigboring Nations. This cancel has affected the likes of SATA and RB who will never respect the will of people just to get to PLOT 1. The cries of the Zimbabewn people are knocking on our door. If you love Zambia you will not vote for any of these old folks

  19. SATA is as untrustworth as Mugabe. People might say let him rule for 3 years. But what will happen is that he will refuse to stand down in 2011. Investors are threatened by the PF cadres. We do not want the Zimbabwe crisis here in Zambia. Therefore Zambians pliz let us not the king cobra take it; we shall be taken 40 years back ward. Abash with SATA and his PF.

  20. Just because the people don’t say what you want them to say during elections doesn’t make them wrong.

    Please people, lets accpt what ever the election result will be in order to avoid situations like this.

    This is specifically aimed at certian quarters that have indicated that they will not accept the results unless they win – someone say BOB…

  22. Mugabe can not be trusted with power sharing, he wants all the power to himself as can be proved from his actions. Dictators like him are dangerous. Just like Sata can not be trusted whith the pact he wanted with UPND, thank God he found interllectuals in upnd who could read his mind and the pact failed cos he could have turned against upnd and take both parties as his. He cant be misunderstood all the time, in fact he changes like a Ka’meliom That’s a lesson we have learned from Mugabe.

  24. Mugabe Sturbon & selfish just like his friend Sata.Zambian must be careful not to put potential dictators like sata.Our fore fathers sucrificed for a better Zambia where people have no idea what it means to be a refugee.. HH is offering himself lets take it or ATLEAST the corrupt banda instead of sata/mugabe like animal.

  26. Iwe ka anonymous #7 Uicindike sana. Zambia is a peace loving nation. Don’t be a prophet of doom. In the next 16 days, 9 hours, 24 minutes and 33 seconds, the majority of Zambian voters will usher in Sata via the ballot. stay put. viva pabwato!!!!!!

  28. #26 wishful thinking, cant’ you see that you are supporting a dictator like mugabe. please let us not just support blindly, analyse the leaders that we have, Sata is a wrong choice which ever way you look at it unless you can not distinguish between sense and rubish. We need thinkers in plot 1 like HH but not dictators/Kaponya styled Sata.!!!!

  30. mugabe is selfish with his party (zanu-pf)so is his friend king cobra (pf)with similar ending who wanted to own 2 parties UPND & PF but thank God the pact never worked , we see Bob’s pipo selling chocklets and biscuits.sad indeed 4 our neighbours.

  31. Sata is busy learning from what his role model is doing in Zimbabwe.
    It would not be surprising to see SATA refuse to leave office until death if at all he got to plot 1.
    Mr Sata, how can you hold Mugabe in such high esteem when all progressive people are against Mugabe’s dictatorial leadership?
    Mr. cannot see my vote because of his ties and the inspiration and the alignment with Mugabe.
    It is enough that we have seen Zimbabwe’s suffering; we dont need to experiment for ourselves here again.

  32. People of Zambia lets lean from Zim, Magabe and sata are the same they have the same ideas, sata is not just the best man the top job. God loves Zambia, he will show us the best man.

  34. Keyser, what has the Dukes Cousin, VJ done wrong to be BURNT together with Mugabe? Guyz like u leave in the past.How can one individual honestly rigg the polls, when i understand every candidate has a rep at the polling station.Can someone explain how in your dreams elections are rigged pa Zed.

  35. Morgan should never have accepted the deal advoated by Mbeki….too bad for zim,rulling parties should know and recognise when people don’t want them any more…..and RB says he has the nations interests at heart ,what a joke…..

  36. #34 munee you’re so dull you wouldnt understant it even if you took part in the rigging.
    what happened to my friends roy, spectator and goerge bush

  37. # 28 Hear , hear!
    There is no room in Zed for potential dictators. PF should first hold elections in its own party (instead of closed door consultations with like-minded members) before they can legitimately claim a place in a democratic election.

    Anyone at this point is better than potential dictators. PF will take us back to “flying by air” mentality. This they have already shown.

  38. Cops have arrest a MMD cadre with VOTE’S cards in NORTHERN PROVINCE it just shows want type of President will RB be.please vote wisely not RB.This guy is just being controlled by his MMD Friends like a robot.

  39. What will not happen is to have fifteen ministries which will run themselves the Zanu-PF way; another thirteen which will run themselves the MDC-T-way; and yet another three that shall be run the Mutambara way.
    Yes, the Mutambara way only in the narrow sense of style of management, but never in the sense of policy direction, implementation direction and the resources from the Fiscus. From that perspective, this fetish around who has what Ministries is needless, indeed immaterial. What underlies it is the deep mistrust between the parties, made deeper by the obvious dependency of some in the agreement, on hostile external powers.

  42. i am very worried about SADC and COMESA. i look at the future of sub sahara and i see by next year, south africa will have Jacob Zuma(JZ), Zimbabwe has the infamous Robert Mugabe(uncle Bob) and God forbid, zambia has SATA(King Cobra). what type of region our we going to have. all these are street chaps who i feel have no respect for citizens. sata when he was the CEO of MMD then , that is Party National Secretary General, potrayed the same character of Mugabe, the beating up the people he now wants to rule in Chawama. Zambians you suprise me , you really really forget. may God give us wisdom on 30th October,2008

  43. Zambia is not zimbabwe and the conditions are different. SATA has the heart of the poor because he understands their problems more than the other 2 contenders. I dont care what you say about him. My vote is on SATA

  45. Rb is a tribalist besides being corrupt,his chief(mpazeni)has comfirmed this(check today’s post) and Sata’s role model ( Mugube) is worse off than Idia … this leaves us with only the best among the worst n that is HH

  46. no.39 infact u are right. we don’t hear much of the new deal why? but sekulu baba bob mugabe feels as if he owns zimbabwe just becoz he is the founding father of that country. just like our own sekulu baba king cobra owns PF.

  48. #43. Sugar Daddy,
    You dont care what we say about SATA?
    You sound like the war veterrans of Zimbabwe, who dont care about what others say about Mugabe, they are ready to die with him in power forever.
    Your way of thinking is a killer to the continet of Africa.
    This is why as African we can go far because we are ready to mess ourselves up, then look for someone to blame instead of cleaning our mess. It happens in politics as well as corporate world. In politics we blame the west, and in corporate world we blame the govt. Just look at M’membe, for example; the guy messes up his Zambian Airways by not meeting his business obligations and he wants to blame the govt for the consequences.

  49. #48 cont’d..
    This is why as Africans we can’t go far because we are ready to mess ourselves up, then look for someone to blame instead of cleaning our mess. It happens in politics as well as corporate world. In politics we blame the west, and in corporate world we blame the govt. Just look at M’membe, for example; the guy messes up his Zambian Airways by not meeting his business obligations and he wants to blame the govt for the consequences.

  50. Thanks #37, Dictator and corrupt rb should be stopped on 30/10/08 through the ballot, imagine just a few days after RB left Northern province, cops have arrested MMD cadres with VOTE’S cards in the area what a coincidance or those are now his instructions to buy voters cards cos he saw that he has no support there. He is not very different from sata no wonder they even look alike. Vote wisely, the only better and clean choice HH!!!!!

  52. #48 This is election time, support your candidate and i will support mine. I will vote for SATA regardless of what you say about him. I believe Zambia will be in capable hands because of what he stands for. Why should a foreigner be more important to me in my own country.We can never agree on this but in my mind Sata is better than the other 2 so come 30th October my vote is on him.

  53. Mwebantu muchibemba tulanda ati umulembwe wachipuba waapwila muli tumfwe. Uyu SATA twimupela ubuteko pantu akonaula ifintu, makamaka icipawo icabuteko. Elyo akakana ukufumapo filya fine Mugabe akene. Abash Ba SATA na ba PF. Viva HH na ba UPND for national healing, prosperity,unification and development.

  55. Guys Robert is a big fool and has really messed up Zim because he always thinks his degrees will save Zim from its crisis…SHAME..PLEASE we are not talking about Zambia,but Zim..why talk about Sata or any other person?????

  56. #52. Sugar Daddy,
    Mugabe felt the same as SATA feels just like all four candidates feel the same about foreigners, that Zambians ahould not suffer at the hands of foreigners.
    It is not the feeling that brings good or bad, rather it is the reaction to such feeling. That is why leadership becomes important to be able to manage feelings properly.
    Mugabe managed his feelings (which of course were good) by doing what he did and brought the country to where it is today, while another person would have reacted to those things differently with minimal casualties.
    However, I respect you advice that we stick to our candidates because it is a democratic advice.

  58. #55 Chaona muzakho chapita mawa chilipaliiwe,today we talking about events unfolding in Zimbabwe tomoro it might be us in the very situation thats why its very important that we analyse these candidates critically.

  59. Life is about the way forward.
    What has happened in the past is for our lessons.
    If we fail to learn we will be doing or desiring to do the same things we have gone through or others have gone through.
    Because of lack of desire to learn, some people want us to go through what Zimbabwe has gone through by choosing a leader who will impliment Mugabe’s policies.
    We have to be careful, because I feel it is enough that Zimbabwe is going through what it is going through. We dont need our own experience to learn what we aught to; what we have seen and heard is enough, hear me! But since it is democracy to what you want, but dont come and say you were not told, be wise!

  61. forget about #7 hes not even here why should he be talking about such thing silly chap. we cant go that far, its rumoured that only a 1/4 of Bobs brain works, the rest was eaten by a bout os syphlis he once had. a long time ago.

  62. Sata & Mugabe think the same, they are like identical twins and we should therefore NEVER trust Sata(King Cobra) pa zed. Imagine thez pf cadres, they have alredy started levying and allocating trading spaces to Street vendors at Hungry Lion and along Lumumba Road! Shame..Dirty.. What then wil Happen if King Cobra is elected? Zambia is one and lets guard it against such and Vote Wisely. Try HH

  63. Christians wake and prayer that Free Manson are not voted-in as presdo! This is a christian nation we want to worship the living God and the of HH!

  67. HH is not realistic in his policies. He talks like one without economic understanding.Anyway he is still learning, but should not learn from Sata. However he is free to learn from Sata’s mistakes.
    HH may be a financial manager but I think he is far from economic focusting. His promise of free education up to university and free medical services is unrealistic. Less than 20% of the population in gainful employment and this cannot sustain the over 80% of the population’s free services. Even in western countries where more that 80% earn incomes above food basket yet they do not give free services to all the 20%. In fact, in Zambia majority of the 20% earning incomes are below food basket.

  68. Ba Anonymous mule mona kwati mwalikwata amano sana na data. When you are very dull a person I have heard. Dig deeper and not making baseless claims. Be careful, we can truck you down. You will be arrested for making force statements to the whole world. Look behind yourself. HH is better a christian with good morals. Umwana uwafundwa. VIVA Peaceful HH

  69. You guys ,old men are nice. RB is older than me bt he is very energetic in bed more than me and I tell u he is so loaded. I realised that younger men just dnt care abt their partner’s well being. They spend most of their time drinking beer and womanising. They come home late just to sleep. Age is just a number, as long as am satisfied!!

  70. #67 cont’d..
    In fact, in Zambia majority of the 20% earning incomes are below food basket, indicating that our economy still very weak to sustain free services. The primary source of govt funds is tax, but how much tax can the govt collect from people who get below food basket in order to meet free services for the 80% of the population and give free education to university.
    Mr HH if you start that programme of free education up to university from January as you put it, how sustainable is it gona be?
    I wish HH’s wish was not a wish.
    There ia no problem making a wish but let us scrutinise all our wishes b4 we make them into promises

  72. Who are the two vice presidents sworn in? LT can you be coprehensive or someone out there pliz help with the names of the VPs.

  73. THE ZAMBIAN SITUATION IS DIFFERENT. THE WINNER WINS ON A SIMPLE MAJORITY WHICH MEANS ANYONE WHO GETS MORE VOTES BECOMES PRESIDENT, SIMPLE AND STRAIGHTFORWARD. AS FOR HH YES HE IS A DEVIL WORSHIPPER A MASON INCLUDING THAT SNAKE OF YOURS WHO HIDES IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. THATS WHY HE LIKES TALKING ABOUT WAR ALL THE TIME. OUR POLICE AND ARMY IS A VERY PROFESSIONAL OUTFIT AND WILL HIT HARD ANYONE WHO TRIES TO BRING NONSENSE KAPONYA POLITICS. ZAMBIA ONE!!

  74. In zed we hav micheal bob sata” even kaponyaz are screaming pabwatooo!He got that name (pf) from mugabe.. Ka bob stupid like our pf here. Sata’s idol! Foolish! Zedians lets watch this cobra.

  79. Mugabe is afraid of the Hague.He wants to cling to power until he is 85 yrs so that he does go to the Hague coz 85 in the minimum age.Zim women are now sex objects in ZED. Ya HIV and AIDS. Zimbabweans stand up and reedem yourselves.

  81. Robert Gaberial Mugabe 74 will be the masters of ceremony during the inauguration of Micheal Sata if he wins the coming presidential by elections 2008.

    Vote for H H man of love and peace

  82. Sata=snake(cobra)
    Pabwatoo=sinking Titanic
    Sata=Bob
    Hence Sata=a sinking boat that will mess the economy.Therefore I disqualify him for president as it shall be so!!!!!!!!

  85. View Poll Results: Who should be our next President
    Rupiah Banda 7 25.93%
    Winright Ngondo 0 0%
    Hakainde Hichilema 12 44.44%
    Mike 2 7.41%
    Castro Chiluba 0 0%
    Michael Sata 6 22.22%
    Kenneth Kaunda 0 0%
    Voters: 27. You may not vote on this poll

  86. Government of national unity. That’s what general Miyanda has been looking for. Hoping to cash in on the confusion to find himself in the Government of nationall unity. It wont work cause PF winning outrightly.

    How do you explain his past silence to speak for us and suddenly he wants to contest. Afumakwi!!!!!!

  87. I knew that this power sharing deal will go nowhere. Chi Mugabe is still in control. I feel for my brothers and sisters in Zimbambwe.

  89. # 52 and # 65 you are one and the same person ninkwishiba. Ikala fye tondolo pantu come November you will be crying. Trying to woo support for Sata after noticing that the man is unpopular. This time he doesnt even stand a chance,maybe he tried in 2006. Ukaba bofye dissapointed. Such Kaponya, Ng’wa ng’wazi mentality. Umukalamba wonse nabana. Just take care of your children and choose a credible leader who will drive thier future forward. Ala.

  90. Can someone explain to me how in the world people will have, lower taxes, more jobs and more money in thier pockets. Its like telling your child that she just be eating food and thats how she will learn how to cook.

    Be real, thats a slogan for the kaponyas who dont understand the economics of taxes .

  91. MUGABE hapana chisingaperi …. these are end of days in zimbabwe its a pity that we still have selfish people like him..

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