Zimbabwe's opposition MDC-T national council has resolved that the party joins the envisaged inclusive government once the legislature has given legal force to the broad-based agreement signed on September 15, The Herald reported on Saturday.
"The MDC (the Movement for Democratic Change) shall participate in a new government once Constitutional Amendment No. 19 has been passed and effected into law," reads the council's third resolution.
Constitutional Amendment No. 19 would give legal force to the positions of the prime minister and his two deputies.
The opposition party also proposed that Parliament be convened immediately to deliberate on the Amendment Bill and oversee the resultant government, The Herald said.
"Parliament must be convened as a matter of urgency to carry out its normal business of overseeing the executive," read the 10th resolution. These resolutions are in line with the communique released at the end of the extraordinary summit of SADC (the Southern African Development Community) heads of state and government who met in Sandton, South Africa, earlier in the week.
Though the MDC-T national council raised a number of complaints over the SADC resolution, the complaints were mainly over procedural matters, which many said could not be used to scupper the successful resolution of the long-drawn talks.
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai did not attend the meeting that was chaired by his deputy Thokozani Khupe. Khupe told journalists that Tsvangirai was out of the country consulting SADC leaders.
The party's spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said Tsvangirai had not returned from the SADC Extraordinary Summit held in Sandton, South Africa, last Sunday.
Khupe raised concerns over the appointment of provincial governors, senior government officials like permanent secretaries and ambassadors and the composition of the National Security Council, among others.
SADC leaders, however, have since said the bone of contention is the Ministry of Home Affairs as they endorsed the Troika decision that the ministry be shared between ruling Zanu-PF and opposition MDC-T.
The Zanu-PF Politburo and the Professor Arthur Mutambara-led MDC formation have since endorsed the Summit resolutions and called for the speedy formation of the inclusive Government.
Minister of Information and Publicity Sikhanyiso Ndlovu on Wednesday announced that Mugabe had started the process of forming the inclusive government in line with the regional body's recommendations.
(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2008)
