A Deal To Talk

The New York Times is proclaiming that this lays the groundwork for a power sharing deal, but it is substantially less than that.

Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe have agreed on a framework on which to conduct further talks.

The ceremony brought together President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. News reports said the two men had not met for a decade, when Mr. Tsvangirai was a labor union leader before he emerged as the head of the main opposition group in 1999.

While the so-called Memorandum of Understanding was a modest step in light of Zimbabwe’s chaos and collapse, the sight of Mr. Mugabe in the same room as Mr. Tsvangirai seemed a dramatic departure from their land’s more usual images of political bloodletting, electoral rigging and economic ruin.

The ceremony in a Harare hotel was overseen by Thabo Mbeki, the president of neighboring South Africa who labored for months as a mediator, defying critics who said his efforts merely gave Mr. Mugabe time to outwit his opponents. Mr. Mbeki sat between the two men as they signed, Reuters reported from Harare.

The agreement “commits the negotiating parties to an intense program of work to try and finalize negotiations as quickly as possible,” Mr. Mbeki said, without giving details.

They've basically agreed to talk more about a possible deal.

Mugabe stole the election in March, and then used his thugs to force Tsvangirai's party to abandon the runoff election. Now, we're supposed to believe that Mugabe will assent to a power sharing deal? I don't buy it, and the media should be more critical of such a deal than it is.

Any deal that leaves Mugabe in power is bad for Zimbabwe, which has seen inflation hit 2.2 million percent, and whose currency must be lugged around in wheelbarrows because it's worthless.

South Africa's Mbeki has been running interference for Mugabe and it is all too possible that had Mbeki not helped out Mugabe, Zimbabwe would not be in the mess it is now. It should be to South Africa's everlasting shame that they supported Mugabe's thuggish and dictatorial power grab. Yet, Mbeki will be lauded over this deal to deal down the road.