Links ~ 10 September 2008

Mbeki Zimbabwe mediation to end soon: Swaziland (Reuters)
South African President Thabo Mbeki has told the king of Swaziland that he expects to end his latest mediation efforts in Zimbabwe by the end of this week, Swaziland’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. [...] “President Mbeki has personally requested to finalise his mediation which he believes will happen before the end of this week. And then he promised to deliver his report.”

Zimbabwe power-share deal could be signed Wednesday: Mugabe (AFP)
Zimbabwe political rivals meeting in Harare could sign a power-sharing deal Wednesday, veteran President Robert Mugabe said following negotiations. “We are finishing tomorrow, hopefully. We are still going to talk, there are one or two areas of disagreement,” Mugabe said late Tuesday as he left the venue for the talks. A government source had earlier said that there was “room for optimism that this deal would be signed tomorrow and that President Robert Mugabe will form a government anytime from tomorrow or this week.”

Southern African summit deferred amid hopes of Zimbabwe pact (IC)
A southern African security summit due to begin Wednesday was deferred by a day amid speculation that Zimbabwe’s political rivals could finally ink a long awaited power-sharing deal.

Zimbabwe to allow goods to be sold in foreign money (Reuters)
Zimbabwe will license 1,000 retailers and 200 wholesalers to sell goods in foreign currency to ease shortages and clamp down on a thriving currency black market, central bank Governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday. “With immediate effect there will be foreign currency licenced warehouses and shops and we are doing this for an initial period of 18 months, as an experiment,” he told reporters.

Hunger road trip of rural Zimbabwe (BBC)
Aid worker Matthew Cochrane tells the BBC News website about the Zimbabweans he met while visiting the country’s south-east Masvingo province. He works for the International Federation of Red Cross, which was not included in the recent government food aid ban – lifted last month – because of the agency’s unique operating status under international law.

Controversy surrounding election of Lovemore Moyo as Speaker (SWRA)
Coltart claimed on Tuesday that the vote was illegal on the basis that some Tsvangirai-MDC MPs showed their ballot to their Vice President Thokozani Khupe, and this according to him broke section 6 of the Standing Orders of the Parliament of Zimbabwe that says the vote should be secret. He said this is a Commonwealth-wide provision that safeguards the central principle of a democratic government and ensures that a neutral Speaker is elected. [...] This is an allegation that has been roundly denied by the Tsvangirai MDC. The party said they had agreed that Moyo was their candidate and it is not feasible to say that some of their MPs would have voted for another candidate. Chamisa said Coltart was not in parliament when the election was held. He accused the Senator of ‘working with ZANU PF to reverse their victory.’

Mutambara makes peace with 10 MPs (The Zimbabwe Times)
Moses Mzila Ndlovu, leader of the camp’s parliamentary caucus said during a press conference here that Zanu-PF and the mainstream MDC which is led by Morgan Tsvangirai were trying to undermine his party by dividing it. For that reason, he said the party leadership would not take disciplinary action on any of its members. [...] “In the circumstances,” said Ndlovu, “it was unanimously resolved that the Botswana/Speaker issue would be closed and that the MDC would be aligned to democracy and to the principles of freedom, tolerance, transparency and respect for the rule of law rather than any political party in pursuit of its parliamentary agenda.”

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