It didn’t last long, did it?

Four days after a ceremony beamed to televisions across the world, we now know that the power-sharing agreement is in jeopardy.

The signing, on Monday, was witnessed around the globe and Zimbabweans in the diaspora allowed themselves to dream of a new Zimbabwe. At last, we all thought, the old man of Zimbabwean politics has wilted under the storm of international pressure.

How wrong we were!

Just four days after the signing we discover that Mugabe has taken at least one of those days to spend time with his party faithful, preferring to maintain the ‘feel good’ factor than to worry himself about the future of Zimbabwe.

This morning we also discover that a deadlock has arisen over the split of the ministries among the three politic parties.

Mugabe, it would appear, is intent on hanging on to defence, finance and home affairs - and his party maintains that this is non-negotiable.

This would not only be an unfair split, but would leave Mugabe with the army, the air force, the police and the State coffers.

But before I can even look at the 31 different ministries with their various deputies, I do question the mix being looked at in the cabinet.

Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC faction won the majority in Parliament, and therefore, in my mind at least, should qualify for a majority in cabinet. The other MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara won just 5% of the Parliamentary seats and should be counting themselves lucky with just 2 seats. The remaining 13 seats should be given to Mugabe’s ZANU PF.

But Mugabe managed to bully the negotiators and the politics heads to give him 15 seats, 13 to Tsvangirai and 3 to Mutambara. Yes, we maybe talking about cabinet, but I do not believe that this mix is a true reflection of the will of the people.

And now, having signed the basis of an agreement, Mugabe is holding out for not only the lion’s share of the ministries number-wise, but he also wants the ministries that make that number overwhelming.

In other words, nothing really has changed. Mugabe continues to rule using the services of the security forces, is able to finance his party and himself using the ministry in charge of State monies – and, by extension, the Reserve Bank.

I understand Tsvangirai reticence in agreeing with such a mix. This would leave his party, the holder of the majority in Parliament, playing second fiddle to Mugabe and his stalwart loyalists.

Then the election would appear to have been for nothing - as Mugabe hangs on to power, having been voted out of office and then voted back in - once he had seen to rearranging the political arena with violence and death.

The whole world was, no doubt, aware that nothing would change when he addressed the signing ceremony on Monday.

He failed to speak of the future, of what the agreement meant to him and his party - nor did he mentioned his vision of the future.

Instead he went for his adversaries - Britain and the UK - and maligned them for everything starting with the weather in his country to his inability to understand simple politics. And the world smiled and shrugged it off as just another of Mugabe’s mad speeches.

Morgan Tsvangirai knew better and put his head in his hands. Either through embarrassment or disbelief - but he knew then that nothing had changed…

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man