Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, rival may be in unity talks

Simba Makoni, a former member of Mugabe's party who finished third in the presidential election, said Tuesday that preliminary talks on sharing power are under way.

Makoni said the talks could not yet be described as formal negotiations, but that he could confirm "that I know that there are communications between and among Zimbabwean leaders at various levels."

Mugabe's Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said in a telephone interview Tuesday that a coalition "could be good for Zimbabwe."

Mugabe's ZANU-PF lost control of Parliament for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980 in parliamentary voting held alongside the first round of presidential voting. Most seats went to candidates representing two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change that have since pledged to work together.

"Whoever wins the presidential election will need the other parties to be able to govern," Matonga said. "We need each other. But it has to be a Zimbabwean initiative. As Zimbabweans, we are capable of running out own affairs. But we need friends like South Africa."

No comments on power-sharing talks
Matonga said he could not confirm reports the two parties were discussing sharing power. Opposition spokesman Nqobizitha Mlilo also said he could not comment on the reports that power-sharing talks were under way.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has mediated stop-and-start talks between Mugabe's and Tsvangirai's parties on behalf of the Southern African Development Community.

Mbeki has insisted on a media blackout, and his spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said the reports of renewed talks, which first appeared Tuesday in South Africa's respected Business Day newspaper, were untrue.

Mugabe was lauded early in his rule for campaigning for racial reconciliation and building the economy. But in recent years, he has been accused of holding onto power through fraud and intimidation, and trampling on political and human rights.

Zimbabwe's collapsing economy was a major concern of voters during the first round of voting. People are going hungry in what was once the region's breadbasket, with the world's highest inflation rate putting staples out of reach.

The country's economic decline has been blamed on the collapse of the key agriculture sector after the seizures — often violent and at Mugabe's orders — of farmland from whites. Mugabe claimed the seizures begun in 2002 were to benefit poor blacks, but many of the farms went to his loyalists.

His country's political and economic crises are seen as destabilizing not just Zimbabwe, but neighbors like South Africa.

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