News and press releases

Zimbabwe Watch is deeply disturbed by the outcome of the Southern African heads of state and government meeting of 9 November in Johannesburg. This summit proposed an unworkable “solution” to the current deadlock in Zimbabwe in the form of a rotating responsibility for the ministry of home affairs while not addressing the current humanitarian and human rights crisis nor the fraudulent alteration of the original version of the “Global Political Agreement” between ZanuPF and the MDC’s.

Pursuant to a research,on the positions of the civil society organisations in Zimbabwe on the then ongoing talks, carried out by Zimbabwe Watch and the Europe External Policy Advisors (EEPA), we hereby present a follow up brief.This brief was produced in partnership with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and is informed by the positions of Zimbabwe Civil Society organizations after the signing of the deal on 15 September 2008.How do the people of Zimbabwe percieve the the deal?What has changed since the time of the research?Is the deal full of hope or a miscarriage of democracy?

Ten Regional heads of state and government from Southern Africa were in Harare on Monday 15 September 2008, to witness the signing of the landmark power sharing deal by Robert Mugabe of ZANU PF, Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC and Arthur Mutambara of the break away faction of the MDC.

"Zimbabwe Watch verwelkomt de overeenkomst tussen MDC en ZanuPF maar uit het vandaag publiek gemaakte akkoord blijkt dat er weinig garanties en 'checks and balances' voor verandering in de hoogste machtsstructuren en uitvoerende macht staan. Die zullen hard nodig zijn als deze overeenkomst een succes moet worden." Dat zegt Pascal Richard, coördinator Zimbabwe Watch.

Volgens Zimbabwaanse partnerorganisaties van Zimbabwe Watch wordt het kabinet nog steeds door de president -  Mugabe -  benoemd en moet de premier – Morgan Tsvangirai – verantwoording afleggen aan de president. Er zullen tot 31 ministers komen in een land dat economisch totaal aan de grond zit.