Statement regarding MDC negotiations

We have noted the comments attributed to Morgan Tsvangirai this past weekend, in particular the following statement:

“On our part, there have been calls across the board for unity within the MDC. I have argued against elite pacts. I have argued against attempts to pick-up individuals for specific party positions. That process cannot be regarded as uniting the party. Such a process is insincere and leads to fresh political setbacks.
Whatever we seek to do must be comprehensive and honest.”

We believe that it is now important to put the record straight regarding the state of the negotiations between the two formations of the MDC.

In the aftermath of the assault of Trudy Stevenson last year it was agreed that there should be negotiations between the two formations of the MDC to formulate a functional working relationship between the two political entities. Accordingly in August 2006 each formation of the MDC appointed a 4 person negotiation team; the Tsvangirai formation’s team was led by Tendai Biti and the Mutambara formation’s team was led by Welshman Ncube.

In the first meeting held in August the two negotiating teams drafted a code of conduct which amongst other things stated both formations’ commitment to non-violence and which set up the mechanism to reduce tensions between the two formations. In the meeting it was agreed between the two negotiating teams that for the code of conduct to be successful there needed to be buy in from the leadership of both formations and widespread publicity given to any final agreement. In the same meeting there was a detailed discussion regarding how the assets of the former united MDC could be split so that two separate political parties with distinct identities could emerge. A draft proposal was agreed upon by the negotiating teams and the meeting concluded with the undertaking that both negotiating teams would go back to their respective national executives to get both draft agreements endorsed.

The second meeting of the two negotiating teams was held in September. At that meeting both negotiating teams advised that their respective national executives had endorsed the code of conduct with a few minor amendments. Accordingly a final code of conduct was agreed to. Both negotiating teams agreed that the code of conduct would be signed by the Presidents and the Secretary Generals of each formation and that a joint press conference would be held as soon as possible, attended by both Presidents, at which the code of conduct would be released to the public and clear statements in support of the code of conduct would be made by both Presidents. At the same meeting in September the Tsvangirai formation team reported back that the national executive wanted to pursue the prospects of unity rather than agree to a formula that would see the emergence of two separate and distinct political parties. As there was no objection to this from the Mutambara formation’s perspective it was agreed that a further meeting would be held to pursue unity talks and that in the interim the code of conduct would be implemented as a confidence building measure between the two formations.

Immediately after the September meeting the code of conduct document was immediately signed by Arthur Mutambara, Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti. The Mutambara formation was advised that Morgan Tsvangirai was reluctant to sign the code of conduct for reasons that remain unclear. After being put under pressure to do so Morgan Tsvangirai eventually signed a document but insisted that he would not attend a joint press conference to launch the code of conduct, a position he has held to up until the present.

The failure to publicly launch the code of conduct then threatened to undermine the negotiation process between the two formations and indeed delayed the holding of the third meeting which was to discuss the prospects of unifying the two formations. On the first weekend of November both formations held national executive meetings. At the meeting of the Tsvangirai formation a decision was taken to change the composition of the negotiating team and several people known to be against unity were included in the team. At a meeting of the Mutambara formation a decision was taken to pursue the unity negotiations notwithstanding the fact that Morgan Tsvangirai had refused to attend a joint press conference to launch the code of conduct.

The third meeting of the two negotiating teams was held over the last weekend of November. The Tsvangirai team was still led by Tendai Biti and excluded the new members of the Tsvangirai negotiating team mentioned above. The meeting was advised that in view of this the participants representing the Tsvangirai formation were there in an informal capacity to explore what prospects there were to unify the two formations. In the meeting both teams agreed that before serious unification talks could begin confidence building measures would have to be implemented. In particular it was agreed that the code of conduct should be made public and that there should be clear buy-in by both leaders. It was also agreed certain measures should be implemented to address the reasons for the split, especially the intra party violence. A proposal was put forward that a neutral panel of “grey-heads” be convened to investigate the causes of the split and to make representations to both formations as to how the issues could be redressed.

The negotiation process then got bogged down. In early February 2007 the mediator met with Morgan Tsvangirai and was advised that he (Tsvangirai) saw no point in pursuing the negotiation process any further. As a direct result of the statement the Mutambara negotiation team was effectively stood down.

In the aftermath of the events of March 11 2007 and Zanu PF’s statement at the end of March that they intended holding joint Presidential and Parliamentary elections by March 2008 the fourth meeting of the two negotiating teams was held in the first week of April. At this meeting it was agreed that there was now insufficient time, even if there was political will, to resolve the issues which gave rise to the split in the first place prior to the elections scheduled for March 2008. It was also agreed that it was absolutely essential that the Zimbabwean electorate be presented with a single opposition candidate in every Parliamentary constituency and in the Presidential election itself to confront Zanu PF.

Accordingly it was agreed by the two negotiating teams that:

– the two formations would fight the elections as one political organisation to be known as the MDC Coalition;
– a nominee of the Tsvangirai formation would be the sole Presidential candidate
– if the election was won a nominee of the Mutambara formation would be appointed Vice President;
– if the election was won the winning President would appoint a small cabinet equally divided between the 2 formations but the President would have discretion regarding the selection of a 3 person majority in cabinet;
– a formula would be agreed to ensure that the two formations shared nominations for candidates in all constituencies throughout the country subject to compliance with primary election procedures of the respective formations with a view to presenting the electorate with a single candidate in every constituency;
-there was to be an irrevocable commitment to implementing a new democratic Constitution within the shortest possible time after taking power and having gone through a process acceptable to the Zimbabwean people to ensure their buy in;
– because of the urgency of the matter the respective formations would publicly announce the agreement before the end of April.

At the end of the meeting all described it as “historic”. A photograph was taken of all those who were in attendance as it was felt that a major breakthrough in the national interest of Zimbabweans had been achieved. The leaders of both formations were regularly consulted through the 2

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