Zimbabwe Crisis Talks Stall, Rumours of a Mole Surface

by Rob Walker | July 29, 2008 at 11:06 am

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The world is waiting in anticipation after it was announced that the Zimbabwe talks had stalled and were taking a few days off.

The official story running on the wire and other news services is that both sides are at an impasse over what position and powers Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and winner of the majority of presidential votes, would have.

However, a few small websites are reporting that the rumours of stalled talks were actually a fake, designed to flush out a 'mole' who was leaking information to the public about the meetings.

The official story:

Officials close to the talks say the sides are at an impasse over what position Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, would hold in any unity government.

The MDC says negotiators for the ruling ZANU-PF party have offered Tsvangirai a third vice presidency with no executive power.

The 'hoax'?:

NEGOTIATORS from Zimbabwe’s major political parties sold the world media a dummy on Monday after a story “leaked” out suggesting power-sharing talks being held in Pretoria, South Africa, had broken down, New Zimbabwe.com can reveal.
The story is untrue.

The real aim of the leak, this website has learnt, was to smoke out a mole on the periphery of the talks thought to be selling stories to the media – against the spirit of a media blackout agreed between the negotiators.

Meanwhile, MDC activists are still being captured and brought to torture camps. The sad truth is that if there are games being played, it is at the expense of these innocent people.

Two MDC activists, Witness Maambire, who was Chief Election to Samuel Muzerengwa (MDC senator for Buhera), and a friend were abducted at gun point by Colonel Morgan Mzilikazi at Chapanduka Business Centre on 24 July 2008. The MP elected for the area Mr. Naison Nemadziwa, who was in the company of the abductees, had to run into the mountains for his safety.
The three had gone to fetch 17 MDC activists who were tortured on 17 July 2008 and were injured with bad cuts all over their bodies and broken legs and arms.

Whilst there are numerous reports on the internet that the talks have broken down and that the ZANU PF contingent has returned to Zimbabwe to discuss their remit with Mugabe, there is another story on the internet that the 'deadlock' was manufactured to flush out a mole in the negotiations who was spilling the beans on the talks.

"Power-sharing talks to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis were deadlocked last night after four days, with the opposition unhappy about President Robert Mugabe's proposal to make their leader Morgan Tsvangirai the third vice-president instead of prime minister.

What they offered Tsvangirai:

Representatives of Mr. Mugabe's Zanu-PF party disclosed that they were mandated only to offer the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, a vice-presidency, with no executive power.
The offer came despite Mr. Tsvangirai decisively beating Mr. Mugabe in the first round of the presidential poll in March, and Zanu-PF losing its parliamentary majority. The MDC pulled out of the presidential run-off last month in the face of a campaign of violence against its supporters, more than 100 of whom were killed, some in appalling brutal ways.

And the Zimbabwean economy is still faring extremely poorly:

Industrial capacity utilisation continues to decline and may well have reached single digits expressed as a percentage if the available economic data production is keeping keep up with events.
A large fertiliser organisation is operating at between 1 and 2% of capacity.