An extra summit of southern African leaders on Monday failed to bring Zimbabwean political parties to finalize sharing of cabinet posts as part of a power-sharing deal signed over a month ago.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao told journalists after the summit, which took over 15 hour, at Rainbow Towers in the early morning on Tuesday, that the political parties had agreed on the allocation of all the other ministries except that of Home Affairs, according to New Ziana report.
"The extra ordinary summit noted with concern disagreement in the allocation of the Ministry of Home Affairs and urged the parties concerned to reach an agreement in order to enable the full implementation of the global political agreement signed on 15 September 2008 as a matter of urgency," he was quoted as saying.
He said three options were tabled to address the sticking point, which the parties would further discuss.
The options are, either ZANU-PF or the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai respectively, appoint the minister or that there be co-sharing or rotation of the chairing of the ministry.
There was no re-opening of the debate on the sharing of other ministries already agreed on, he said.
In the all inclusive government with 31 cabinet seats, ZANU-PF will get 15 ministerial posts, while the MDC led by Tsvangirai will get 13 with the other formation of the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara getting the remaining three.
Salomao said the summit, which was chaired by Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, recommended that a full SADC summit be held urgently to further review the political situation in Zimbabwe.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, his predecessor and mediator in the talks, Thabo Mbeki, as well as the Prime Minister of Swaziland Sibusiso Dlamini and Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister Assuncao A Sousa dos Anjos also attended the summit.
Motlanthe is the current SADC chairperson.
Salomao said other outstanding issues the parties needed to resolve included nomination of governors for the country's 10 provinces and the role of the National Security Council in the all inclusive government.
He said the troika noted that the parties were committed to dialogue and encouraged Mbeki to continue with the mediation.
"The extra ordinary summit of the organ noted that the people of Zimbabwe are faced with difficult challenges and suffering that can only be addressed once the inclusive government is in place. In view of the above, the summit urged that parties genuinely commit themselves in finding a lasting solution to the current deadlock," he said.
The executive secretary dismissed assertions that a full SADC summit might fail to bring to finality the implementation of the full power sharing agreement.
The dates and venue of the full SADC summit would be announced in due course, Salomao said.