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Tsvangirai threatens to quit power-sharing deal

12/10/2008

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to quit a national unity government with president Robert Mugabe.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party has denounced Mr Mugabe's move as jeopardising a fragile power sharing deal signed about four weeks ago.

On Friday, Mr Mugabe in a government notice allocated his Zanu-PF party the contested key ministries of Defence, Home Affairs, Finance, Local Government and Foreign Affairs.

Power sharing talks are deadlocked over the division of the key ministries between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, delaying the formation of a unity government heralded as the first key step in ending the country's economic and political crisis.

And speaking at a rally in Harare, Mr Tsvangirai said: "If they [Zanu-PF] do it that way, we have no right to be part of such an arrangement.

"The people have suffered. But if it means suffering the more in order for them to get what is at stake, then so be it," he was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

"We will renegotiate until an agreement is reached but that does not mean we will compromise for the sake of it."

Mr Tsvangirai said his party will only continue with power sharing talks with Mugabe only in the presence of an African Union (AU) or Southern African Development Community (SADC) mediator.

Mr Tsvangirai's ministries
1 Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs
2 Economic Planning and Investment Promotion
3 Energy and Power Development
4 Health and Child Welfare
5 Labour and Social Welfare
6 Water Resources Development and Management
7 Public Service
8 Sport, Arts and Culture
9 State Enterprise and Parastatals
10 Science and Technology Development
11 Information Communication Technology
12 Public Works
13 National Housing and Social Amenities

Mr Mugabe's ministries
1 Defence
2 Home Affairs
3 Foreign Affairs
4 Transport
5 Local Government and Urban Development
6 Mines and Mining Development
7 Lands, Agriculture and Resettlement
8 Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism
9 Higher and Tertiary Education
10 Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development
11 Justice and Legal Affairs
12 Media, Information and Publicity
13 Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development
14 Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment
15 Finance