AND so the farce continues. Zimbabwe’s octogenarian dictator, Robert Mugabe, fresh from an overseas visit funded by the public purse, met with Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition for yet another “last gasp” round of “crisis talks” on power-sharing.
They met amidst yet another flurry of rhetoric signalling that, come hell or high water, there would be no settlement.
Mugabe’s people set the tone for the talks by announcing that a new government would be formed “with or without” Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai, without the machinery of state in his hands, could only lamely demand that the power sharing deal should involve actual power sharing.
He too is being disingenuous.
You cannot escape the conclusion that he is playing for time, waiting for Mugabe to exit the stage one way or another so he will be the stronger party in the negotiations.
Be that as it may, the whole talks thing has become a regional farce, with heads of state paraded about in increasingly ludicrous garlands of dead flowers as the talks charade drags on.
The fact is that there is no political will from Mugabe and only the most flaccid interest from Tsvangirai in making this power-sharing arrangement work.
It looks increasingly as if former President Thabo Mbeki, feeling the hot breath of his political rivals on his collar, rushed through a half-baked agreement.
The much heralded “deal” signed in Harare on the eve of Mbeki’s political demise was, in reality, no deal at all.
It was merely an undertaking to continue seeking a deal that has left the door open for both parties to tug the reigns this way and that as Zimbabwe gallops towards a social and economic abyss.
The talks charade must stop and the world must apply pressure to bring about real change.