Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party yesterday rejected Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's call for a range of serious disputes between their respective parties to be judged by governments in the region.
Zimbabwe's three-month-old coalition government has made no progress on issues of human rights reforms and governance.
Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, on Sunday announced the party was calling on the Southern African Development Community to mediate between it and Zanu-PF.
MDC officials accuse Mugabe and Zanu-PF of stonewalling on issues such as the continued arrests of pro-democracy activists, MPs, lawyers and journalists, ongoing invasions of white-owned farms and Mugabe's unilateral appointments of his cronies as head of the central bank and attorney-general.
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Yesterday, Transport Minister Nicholas Goche, who is one of Zanu-PF's main negotiators, was quoted as dismissing the arbitration calls as "premature", the three parties to the power-sharing deal would first have to declare a deadlock.
MDC spokesperson James Maridadi said the party was in the process of notifying SADC.
Edwin Mushoriwa of the smaller MDC faction led by Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara said resolution of the outstanding issues was "taking too long".
"The time is right for the matter to be referred to guarantors of the agreement," he said. - Sapa-DPA
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This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on May 20, 2009
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