Pretoria - Director General (DG) in the Presidency Reverend Frank Chikane on Wednesday highlighted that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was united on the issue of Zimbabwe.
SADC Heads of State and senior government officials, as well as Zanu-PF and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders, who met at the Presidential guesthouse on Monday and Tuesday agreed by consensus on SADC's recommendations that the formation of an inclusive government was the only way forward, Rev Chikane said.
"When SADC met on Monday, going into Tuesday, all parties agreed by consensus on the [15 September 2008 Global Peace Agreement] and SADC's recommendations.
"The good thing is that SADC came out of the summit united on Zimbabwe, which could very easily have not been the case," the DG said.
Reverend Chikane refused to be drawn into questions regarding the individual political parties involved in the talks, saying only that the Global Peace Agreement (GPA), signed by Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions on 15 September 2008, was meant to usher in an inclusive government which could then create conditions for free and fair elections at a later stage.
The inclusive government, he said, would have allowed the parties to work together and then shape conditions conducive to the holding of fresh elections, following the disputed 27 June 2008 presidential run-off.
After the June 2008 elections, which both the African Union (AU) and SADC agreed were not free and fair, all parties felt another election at the time would not have resolved anything as conditions for elections were not right.
The issues of the co-management of the Home Affairs portfolio and the enactment of Constitutional Amendment 19 - creating the office of prime minister and deputy prime minister - are primarily the only outstanding issues that Zanu-PF and the MDC factions still need to agree upon, Rev Chikane said.
The 9 November 2008 SADC Extraordinary Summit ruled that the only way to decide on who would get the Home Affairs portfolio between Zanu-PF and MDC-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) would be to share it and then review the arrangement after six months.
"SADC, however, could not mediate who starts first and they couldn't agree, so therefore the issue was elevated to the next SADC summit," the DG explained.
The main difference between the recommendations of SADC in November 2008 and the summit on 26 January 2009, is where as before SADC wanted an inclusive government to be formed and then for the amendment 19 to be passed, now amendment 19 has to be passed before an inclusive government is formed.
Reverend Chikane said South Africa and SADC have to respect the rights of political parties to dispute recommendations, but said political leadership must go back to their constituencies and say this is what SADC has ruled and forming an inclusive government is best.
"In negotiations, you never come out with all your demands having been met ... sometimes you lose certain things and gain other things," the DG said.
With regard to the 5 and 11 February 2009 deadlines that were set by SADC on Tuesday for the enactment of amendment 19 and the swearing in of Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister, Rev Chikane said these deadlines must be met as they are critical to the formation of an inclusive government.
