South African president meets with Zimbabwe leaders as talks on shaky power-sharing begin

Mediator starts talks on Zimbabwe power-sharing

HARARE, Zimbabwe — South African President Jacob Zuma began talks Wednesday with Zimbabwe’s political leaders on his first trip as chief regional mediator to patch up differences in the troubled coalition government.

President Robert Mugabe arrived first at a downtown hotel where Zuma met separately later with former opposition leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

“It was a good meeting, as usual,” Mugabe told reporters after spending 90 minutes with the South African leader.

Zuma arrived in Harare late Tuesday on a crucial two-day visit to review the country’s shaky coalition agreement a year after a power-sharing government was sworn in.

Disputes have weakened the coalition and led to Tsvangirai’s three-week withdrawal from it in November.

Negotiators from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change have hinted Zuma’s stay in Harare is unlikely to yield any immediate breakthrough.

ZANU-PF head negotiator Patrick Chinamasa, who is also the justice minister, said local negotiators were scheduled to prepare a final report on issues deadlocked over the past year for submission to Zuma at the end of March.

“This final document will indicate the disagreements and agreements … but we are not at liberty to discuss any of them with the media at the moment,” he told reporters during ceremonies welcoming Zuma.

Tsvangirai’s party blames Mugabe for reneging on key provisions of the deal that allow for democratic and media reform, and an end to lawlessness after years of political and economic turmoil.

Mugabe alleges Tsvangirai’s party failed to win concessions from its Western allies to remove targeted sanctions against his loyalists.

Zuma and regional leaders were “guarantors” mandated by the Southern African Development Community, a a 14-nation political and economic bloc, to make the power-sharing agreement work, said Elton Mangoma, a negotiator for Tsvangirai who is also economic development minister.

“We have made our position known and hope it will be given consideration,” he said.

Tsvangirai’s party has also criticized sweeping plans under an act passed by Mugabe’s lawmakers before disputed elections in 2008 to give black “indigenous” Zimbabweans a majority stake in private businesses.

Those laws, which took effect March 1, will affect South African-owned businesses, mines and farms. The laws already have put on hold proposed inflows of hard currency that would ease woes faced by education, social and economic government departments under Tsvangirai’s control in the coalition.