It is ironic that Robert Mugabe should be in a power struggle with Morgan Tsvangirai when for the past 28 years he has hung grimly on to power using whatever tools within his reach. That this young upstart who leads a political party that has not even been in existence for ten years should represent such a threat to Mugabe and his party is unchartered territory for ZANU PF.

Negotiations have been intermittent - rather like the ability Mugabe has to run the much-damaged country and its economy - and have been ongoing since March last year.

Mugabe has proved himself a shrewd negotiator and when he thought that the talks were not going his way, initially he pulled the rug out from under the opposition by declaring March 29 as election day, and then subjecting the Zimbabwean population to horrendous violence, murder and mayhem, resulting in Tsvangirai being obliged to withdraw from the election’s second round.

Even with Mugabe then winning the one man sham election, the violence did not stop and many people have been beaten and imprisoned, whilst Mugabe’s party attempted to institute frivolous laws which they themselves now disregard. (You cannot, in all consciousness, put a law in place that has some sort of expiry date. An example is the declaring of satellite dishes ‘illegal’ in the run-up to the election, and just weeks later, Mugabe showers the judiciary with gifts for their loyalty - including satellite dishes!)

In the just finished SADC summit held in South Africa, we were all primed by Thabo Mbeki, the man given the SADC mandate to seek an agreement in the Zimbabwean crisis, to expect both parties to finally reach an accord and sign on the dotted line.

By Sunday it was apparent that no such deal was in the offing.

Reports tell us that Tsvangirai had been offered a third Vice Presidential post - which the MDC rejected. They want Tsvangirai to be Prime Minister with executive power, while Mugabe would retain the Presidency on a more ceremonial role, but would also control the defence forces and the central bank (who have bankrolled Mugabe for at least the past five years…).

It emerged today that Mugabe was even offered the position of Prime Minister with Tsvangirai as Executive President - which was rejected by ZANU PF negotiators.

Whilst the negotiating continues, with neither party prepared to give very much ground at all, it emerges also that SADC have given Mugabe the green light to convene Parliament!

This would be entirely wrong, as Parliament would include a cabinet – and any cabinet selected and appointed by Mugabe will not reflect the ‘will of the people’ seeing as Tsvangirai’s party have the majority in Parliament.

I would be very interested in the people that Mugabe appoints to any cabinet because at this time he rules with an illegally re-appointed cabinet, including at least two men who have lost their Parliamentary seats in the March 29 elections.

And all the while, the people of Zimbabwe are still under the cosh. Mugabe’s party continues to exert much pressure on the MDC and any sympathetic civic body, whilst the population strives to survive with nothing in the shops and very little money to buy it – even if there was something.

On the financial front, I see that the black market exchange rate has increased more than fourfold in the last week - such is the catastrophe within Zimbabwe.

Whilst Mugabe and Tsvangirai continue to vie for control, the brave people of Zimbabwe continue to eke out a living in the ruins of Mugabe’s almost 3-decade (decayed?) reign.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man