“We are different parties; we go at each other at party level. Yes. But let it not be said that we are dysfunctional, (that) we are at war. No,” said Mugabe, 86, defending an attack he made on Tsvangirai at a party conference over the weekend.

“This inclusive government will not collapse. We will make sure that it does not collapse,” said Tsvangirai, adding that there was a “camaraderie” with his former political enemy.

Over the weekend, Mugabe told his supporters that he was tired of working with Tsvangirai and wanted elections next year.

But after meeting with Tsvangirai and Mutambara, Mugabe said that the coalition had given Zimbabweans “a sense of togetherness.”

Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans would go to elections once a referendum for a new constitution has been held.

All those involved were from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party. Tsvangirai has no power over ministers from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party in a unity government forged last year as a compromise after disputed national elections in 2008.

The Tsvangirai politician who shared the police ministry with a ZANU-PF official was shuffled to the housing ministry and the previous housing minister was dismissed. The ministers of energy, women and youth also were dismissed.

Tsvangirai told reporters the slow pace of restoring law and order, rehabilitating power infrastructure and achieving democratic reforms in general led to “a loss of confidence in the new administration among the electorate.”

“As a result, I have decided on a number of changes needed to strengthen the performance of the MDC in government and outside government,” he said of the first shuffle since he took office in February last year.

Mugabe rarely fires his ministers, most of them longtime ZANU-PF loyalists. Several ZANU-PF politicians have survived corruption allegations over the three decades Mugabe has been in power in Zimbabwe.

But there was no sign US President Barack Obama’s administration would ease sanctions targeted at President Robert Mugabe and his loyalists, the people with whom Tsvangirai has shared power uneasily for more than a year.

The United States — along with the European Union — maintains a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe, his wife and inner circle in protest at controversial elections and alleged human rights abuses by his government.

In an interview with AFP and another journalist, Tsvangirai appeared to make the case for at least an easing of US sanctions when he visited Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He came “to update her on the latest situation in the country in terms of where the bottlenecks are, where progress has been made, and what the United States should do,” the premier said.

“There should be a recognition (by Washington) that there is progress, but (perception of) that progress may not be sufficient to convince the American government,” Tsvangirai said, referring to efforts to lift the sanctions.

In the end, history has a clear direction and it is not the way of those who arrest women and babies for singing in the streets. It is not the way of those who starve and silence their own people, who cling to power by the threat of force.

Excerpts below, full New York Times account here

Mr. Obama’s decision to publicly recognize Women of Zimbabwe Arise, or Woza, whose members have taken to the streets for years to demand democracy, will probably confirm Mr. Mugabe’s belief that the United States and the West are out to topple him, already a recurrent theme in the state-run media he controls.

Though engaged in a power-sharing government since February, Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have deployed state security forces to arrest and jail rival politicians and party workers, human rights lawyers and civic leaders.

Regional heads of state, worried that the government led by Mr. Mugabe and his nemesis, Morgan Tsvangirai, will crumble, have insisted the men settle their differences in coming weeks, but so far Mr. Mugabe has shown no inclination to bend.

The United States has limited political leverage in southern Africa, but Mr. Obama has repeatedly spoken out about Mr. Mugabe’s misrule — notably when he welcomed Mr. Tsvangirai to the White House in June, when he addressed the Ghanaian Parliament in July and in his remarks on Monday.

More details below, read the full report here:

The catalyst for this step was the jailing Wednesday of Roy Bennett, Mr. Tsvangirai’s deputy agriculture minister-designate, a white farmer who is scheduled to stand trial Monday on three-year-old terrorism charges that his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, says are fabricated. But even after Mr. Bennett was grantedbail Friday after the news conference, officials in his party said their decision to disengage did not change.

“This is the time for us to say enough is enough,” said Thabitha Khumalo, a spokeswoman for the M.D.C.

Mr. Tsvangirai laid out a broad array of grievances. He accused Mr. Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, of selectively using the law as a weapon to punish his parliamentarians, putting 16,000 of its youth militia on the government payroll, and remilitarizing the countryside on bases used in last year’s discredited election to organize a campaign of terror against his supporters.

While he stopped short of quitting the government, Mr. Tsvangirai warned that if the crisis were not resolved and a working relationship restored he would call for United Nations-supervised elections.

There was a time when Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa and continues to have enormous potential. It has gone through a very dark and difficult period politically… President Mugabe—I think I’ve made my views clear—has often times not acted in the best interests of the Zimbabwean people and has been resistant to the kinds of democratic changes that need to take place. We now have a power-sharing agreement that shows promise.

-Chris Scott

We’ll bring you more details as they arrive.

-Chris Scott

The agreement, which Tsvangirai calls the best hope for Zimbabwe, could be Zimbabwe’s first step towards peace and an opportunity to recover from the political and economic crises that have gripped the country for the past few months.

Excerpts below, full article here

The full details and content of the deal have not been confirmed but it proposes a 50-50 division of power, with Mr Mugabe remaining head of state and head of the cabinet.
Morgan Tsvangirai will head a council of ministers, which will be responsible for the day-to-day managing of the country’s affairs.

[Mugabe] said there were “lots of things” in the deal that neither leader liked but that they would work together to “find our way”.

“As long as salient principles are recognised, there will be room for more agreement,” Mr Mugabe said.

In his speech, Mr Tsvangirai said the agreement was a “product of painful compromises” and that it did not provide “an instant cure” to the fortunes of Zimbabwe. “I’ve signed this agreement because I believe it represents the best opportunity for us to build a peaceful and prosperous democratic Zimbabwe,” he said.

-Chris Scott

The few African observers who were present immediately called for the elections to be held again, stating that those who did vote did so only out of fear and intimidation. Many people were beaten for not voting or being able to prove that they voted. The official results showed that the 84-year old president won all ten provinces with 85.5% of the vote.

Archbishop Tutu called on African leaders to refuse to recognize Mugabe as president, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice urged China, Russia and South Africa to back action against him. The US plans to toughen its sanctions against Zimbabwe and is urging the Security Council to do the same. Echoing Tsvanigirai’s earlier call for peacekeeping intervention, Tutu and Prime Minister of Kenya Raila Odinga called on the African Union to send troops to intervene in Zimbabwe.

Despite these outcries, Mugabe was sworn in on Sunday, stating in his speech that he hoped to form a unity government.

The African Union will meet today in Sharm El Shiekh and Zimbabwe will be on the agenda. Tsvangirai is expected to attend and appeal to African leaders not to recognize the re-election. Mugabe is also scheduled to be there and he will likely come under a lot of pressure at the AU meeting, after his own peers in the SADC have rejected the election. If African leaders do not unite on this issue, with a firm stand against Mugabe and non-recognition of him as a democratically elected President, the continent will no doubt have several more governance crises to contend with.

-Edith Jibunoh, ONE policy staff