GPA negotiators to finalise roadmap report in fortnight

election roadmap in a fortnight after talks in Harare this week.
They also concluded deliberations and produced a report on the review of the implementation of the GPA provisions.
The negotiators from Zanu-PF and the two MDCs met on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
On the agenda were two issues – to review implementation status of GPA provisions and crafting of an election roadmap.
“We concluded the deliberations on the review and we have produced a report that we all signed yesterday (Thursday). We more or less concluded deliberations on the election roadmap but we have not produced a report to reflect the discussions.
“We will conclude the final report on Wednesday April 20 2011,” Zanu-PF negotiator Cde Patrick Chinamasa said in an interview yesterday.
He added: “On the election roadmap, what remains outstanding is to produce a report.”
The negotiators also met the facilitation team from South Africa on Thursday and briefed them on the progress made so far. SA President Jacob Zuma is the Sadc appointed facilitator to the GPA.
“We met them yesterday evening and we briefed them on progress we have made and that on election roadmap what remained outstanding was to produce a report.
“We are meeting on the 20th of April to conclude it. We handed over to them the review report that we signed. When we conclude the election roadmap we produce a report that we will deliver to the principals and the facilitation team,” Cde Chinamasa said.
The facilitation team was invited to return next month.
“We invited the facilitation team to come and join us for a meeting on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of May so that we go over these reports and see what facilitation they can provide with respect to issues that remain in contention,” Cde Chinamasa said.
He said an election roadmap was not about timelines.
“With respect to the roadmap, the exercise is about identifying those activities and milestones or sign posts that are necessary to be achieved or to be undertaken before the elections.
“These milestones will be stipulated in the Constitution and some in the electoral law. For the present, we are confining the exercise to a mere identification of those milestones.”
On the review there are some areas to do with the political environment.
“These were in particular allegations of politically motivated violence and the picture painted by the MDC-T is that Zanu-PF supporters are the perpetrators and that is not true.
“The truth of the matter is that there are some incidences of violence instigated by MDC-T against Zanu-PF and the other by Zanu-PF against MDC-T.
“The blame is mutual and there is no party that can claim a clean record. Any propaganda to falsify the reality on the ground is clearly condemned. It is important that we should acknowledge the reality if we are to come up with the right solutions. Self-serving statements that do not reflect reality should be discouraged,” Cde Chinamasa said.
He said the MDC-T’s violence propaganda was meant to show the outside world that the environment was not ready for elections.
“More malicious intention is to invite foreign intervention in the domestic affairs of this country and we dismiss that with the contempt it deserves,” Cde Chinamasa said.
He said Zimbabweans should solve their own problems.
“Zimbabwean problems should be tackled by Zimba-bweans.
“We should come up with Zimbabwean solutions and only go to Sadc to seek facilitation where there are divergent view points,” he said.