Mbeki in bid to save power-sharing deal

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe swore in his two vice presidents Monday, a senior official said, casting doubt on a new mediation effort aimed at saving a power-sharing deal with the opposition.

Mugabe’s decision to swear in Joyce Mujuru and Joseph Msika came two days after state media announced that he would award the most important cabinet posts to his own party.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has already threatened to pull out of the power-sharing deal, saying Mugabe had violated the spirit of the pact meant to forge a unity government to end months of political unrest.

“Whatever appointments or acts that do not address the woes of the country are meaningless,” said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

South Africa’s former president Thabo Mbeki was expected in Harare later Monday to meet with negotiators from the rival parties to try to salvage the deal, which he brokered four weeks ago.

“He will meet with them starting from today, separately and jointly,” Mbeki’s spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga told AFP.