THE future of Zimbabwe is in limbo although the country’s two feuding parties, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which now has a majority in Parliament, and Zanu PF, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), under the watchful eye of South African President, Thabo Mbeki.

Although the Zimbabwean society is pinning its hopes on the talks, most people are afraid that Zanu PF may back-track on its commitment, thus plunging the country into further turmoil.

The ruling party has lost credibility in the past after it failed to honour its side of the Unity Accord agreement with PF Zapu in 1987. 

The MDC and Zanu PF met at Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare on July 20 to sign the MoU, which had been secretly crafted by mediators from the two parties in South Africa.

An initial signing ceremony was abandoned after MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the proposed ceremony at the State House.

Diplomats and political analysts said Tsvangirai had refused to attend the State House  ceremony because he did not recognise Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s Head of State.

The ceremony was later moved to Rainbow Towers hotel after Mugabe was said to have agreed to sign the document outside State House.

The eleven point document, which  highlights the level of chaos and anarchy in Zimbabwe, seeks to address pertinent issues which have something to do with the current political and economic situation in the country.

There are however, mixed feelings across the Zimbabwean society which has suffered under the dictatorial leadership of Mugabe, who has ruled the country with an iron fist in his entire 28 -year rule.

Already Zimbabwe’s vibrant civic society, including the ZCTU has already expressed reservations over the whole process,  saying Zimbabwe’s crisis was not just an issue between the MDC and Zanu PF political parties only, but touched on an array of civil and political institutions which needed to be involved to chart the way forward.

However the crisis talks have excluded the wider society which has been instrumental in the democratisation proccess for a very long time.

Meanwhile, ZCTU has dropped a bombshell over Robert Mugabe's purported election as the president of Zimbabwe,  declaring that his election is a nullity and that workers do not recognize him as their legitimate head of state.

In a communique on July 12, the ZCTU General Council, meeting as the decision and policy making body of the labour union, also  resolved to support moves for a Neutral Transitional Authority (NTA), rather than a Government of National Unity (GNU) being pushed for by South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who is currently facilitating dialogue between MDC and Zanu PF.

Mugabe defied the international community, including the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Africa Union (AU) which had said a presidential election run-off pitting him against MDC president and favourite to win the poll, Morgan Tsvangirai, should be shelved and be held at a latter date as the environment in the country did not allow for the holding of a free and fair election.   He then embarked on a violent  one man show, where he was the sole candidate after  Tsvangirai pulled out citing rising violence against his supporters.

Tsvangirai had won the first round convincingly on March 29, beating Mugabe by more than five percentage points. According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, he polled 47.9 percent of the total vote, while Mugabe polled 42.3 percent. ZEC, which took more than five weeks to announce the result, ordered a run off after it claimed that none of the candidates had garnered enough votes to avoid a run off.

After the announcement of the results by ZEC, Zanu PF, using state resources and ammunition, embarked on a violent campaign which resulted in more than 110 MDC supporters killed, with some of them being shot at point blank by members of the army and Zanu PF militias.  Thousands of MDC supporters were also displaced.

In its resolutions, the General Council resolved not to recognize Mugabe as a legitimate head of state after noting that the June 27 run off had degenerated into a declaration of war on Zimbabweans by Mugabe.

“Dozens of people were murdered due to politically motivated violence; thousands were threatened with death, beaten, tortured and harrased for expressing or supporting MDC . People were forced to attend political rallies, failure of which they were severely beaten up,” noted the general council.

“There was deployment and sprouting of several bases led by the then ruling party militias that harassed and perpetrated political violence. The usual polling officers, that is teachers and other civil servants, where sidelined in the running of elections in favour of ruling party supporters,” also noted the ZCTU, adding that even Mugabe, who was a contesting candidate on a Zanu PF ticket, in most of his campaigns, had made it clear that he would not accept defeat, even if he lost the election to Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC.

It also noted that even the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) observer Mission, the Pan African Parliament (PAP) observer Mission and the Africa Union (AU) observer Mission had declared that the elections where not free and fair and that there was need for the holding of a free and fair poll in the country, which would represent the will of the Zimbabwean people.

The SADC observer Mission had observed that the election process did not represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe.

“The African Union (AU) observer Mission also noted that, in the context of the AU Declaration of the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa, it is the considered view of the AU Observer Mission that the election process fell short of accepted AU standards,” noted the ZCTU, quoting from the AU observer Mission report.

The labour union expressed concerns that the current mediator in the talks, president Mbeki, was working on a part-time basis and that he had been involved in the negotiation process for a long time without much success. It also noted that Mbeki was perceived as sympathetic to Zanu PF.

It also expressed concern that Mbeki’s idea of power sharing  and the establishment of a Government of National Unity (GNU) was misplaced as it did not represent the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe.

The council then resolved that the mediation process should not be left to President Mbeki alone, but that other players should be involved.

It also demanded that the inter-party talks should not exceed two months because the economy was now in a very bad shape and that violence was still continuing in some parts of the country.

“A Government of National Unity is a subversion of our National Constitution and only a Neutral Transitional Authority (NTA) should be put in place with a mandate to take Zimbabwe to fresh, free and fair elections that will hopefully not be disputed by the parties,” concluded the ZCTU communique.