A top Zimbabwe government and Zanu-PF official says president Robert Mugabe will defy the opposition and form a new government despite stalled talks on a unity government.
Deputy information minister Bright Matonga told South African Public Broadcaster SAFM that the regime needs to
work on the economy because in his words people are suffering.
Matonga says president Mugabe is acting
based on the mandate of the SADC
or Southern African Development Community regional bloc.
But the SADC has denied
the claim it gave president Mugabe the mandate to appoint a new
cabinet.
SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao told VOA that though he is not allowed to comment on the talks because of the pledge made by the parties not to comment to the media, "it is not true that his body gave Harare the green light to appoint a new cabinet. "
The talks are expected to resume in Pretoria Friday and the Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to begin by petitioning president Thabo Mbeki the SADC appointed mediator on recent developments.
The party says it will protest the convening of parliament by Mugabe without the consent of the other parties, the continued arrests and harassment of its members of parliament and Mugabe’s threat to form a new cabinet even before the talks have been concluded.
Political analyst Hermann Hanekom told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Zanu-PFis negotiating in bad faith.