A week ago Monday, over coffee and a bagel sandwich in upstate Vermont, Jude and I heard news of the power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe. Morgan is the new PM, Mugabe remains the figurehead president. Interesting but I think it’s a crock of shit.

Sokwanele has the full agreement, while the BBC has the good, the bad, and the ugly on the deal.

The good, he said, was a commitment to economic change (no more printing of money, for example) and talk of a new constitution (though not for 18 months).

However, the good was balanced by the bad and the ugly.

The most worrying element was a lack of clarity about where power actually lay.

There is to be a cabinet chaired by President Mugabe and a Council of Ministers made up of the same people but chaired by Prime Minister Tsvangirai.

The first will decide policy and the second will carry it out. The MDC and its breakaway faction do have a majority in both.

The share-out of ministries has not been fully agreed, though Mr Mugabe retains control over the military and Mr Tsvangirai says he must have the police.

Western governments think that the agreement could go either way - either to confirm Mr Mugabe in effective control or to confirm a shift of power.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 10 pm and is filed under africa, news, zimbabwe.