Harare - Zimbabwe's crisis negotiations drifted closer to collapse Thursday as President Robert Mugabe threatened to go ahead and appoint a cabinet if the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the party in contention with him, fail to sign a draft agreement immediately. "If after tomorrow (Thursday) (MDC leader Morgan) Tsvangirai does not want to sign, we will certainly put together a cabinet. We feel frozen at the moment. We will not allow a situation where we will not have a cabinet forever," Mugabe was quoted as saying in the state- controlled daily Herald newspaper.
The six-week-old talks, chaired by South African President Thabo Mbeki, have been stalled for nearly three weeks over the functions Mugabe and Tsvangirai would be assigned in a transitional power- sharing government. The pro-democracy leader says that the draft gives Mugabe powers that effectively allow him to retain all that he has held since he came to power in 1980.
The MDC immediately dismissed Mugabe's threat. "Mr Mugabe is trying to negotiate with us with a gun in his pocket," said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa. "We are not going to be stampeded into any kind of deal that doesn't benefit Zimbabwe. If Mugabe thinks he can save this country alone, he is living in cloud-cuckoo land. ZANU(PF) (Mugabe's party) has neither the capacity nor the ideas to rescue Zimbabwe."
A framework to the talks signed by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and the leader of a smaller faction of the MDC stated that no cabinet could be formed until the talks were over. Observers say if Mugabe goes ahead, he will force the collapse of the talks, the only initiative currently available for pulling the country out of economic, social and political chaos.
"We are a government that is empowered by elections," Mugabe said. "So we should form a cabinet. We will not allow a situation where we will not have a cabinet forever."
In elections in March, the MDC won majorities in parliamentary and presidential elections, although it failed to secure more than the 50 per cent needed for victory.
For the second round presidential vote, Mugabe launched a campaign of brutal intimidation that saw 120 MDC supporters murdered and thousands maimed and injured. Tsvangirai withdrew, leaving Mugabe to declare himself winner of a one-man contest that was dismissed across the world as a violent, fraudulent farce.
The talks were suspended three weeks ago when Tsvangirai said he needed to "reflect and consult" over the disputed draft. Mugabe claimed that the British government had persuaded Tsvangirai not to accept the deal, which has been backed by Mbeki and the Southern African Development Community, the 14-nation regional bloc.
"We know it is the British behind it. As long as they do not want it, he will not sign. It is the land question, and all this talk about democracy is nonsense."
Mugabe was referring to international condemnation of his lawless seizure of white-owned farmland that brought about the collapse of the country's economy and massive inflation. Zimbabwe's currency has fallen from 5 million Zimbabwe dollars to the US dollar in January to 2 trillion Zimbabwe dollars to the US dollar now.
