HARARE, ZIMBABWE — The signing of a painful compromise Monday by bitter enemies marked a clear power shift in Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe lost control of parliament and the Cabinet for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980. But it still won't be easy for his opponents to govern.
Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, faces resistance from hostile government ministers and security chiefs, as well as hard-line elements of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
For the deal to have any chance, Tsvangirai needs international help to end hyperinflation, now officially estimated at 11.2 million percent, and rebuild the country. International reaction to the deal has been cautiously optimistic, even though Mugabe remains president, keeps control over the military, and the two sides haven't been able to agree on who gets which Cabinet posts or controls the police and the intelligence services.
The enmity between Mugabe and Tsvangirai is so bitter that many observers question how a joint Cabinet could work. Tsvangirai has been severely beaten, jailed and charged with treason. Mugabe has often lampooned Tsvangirai's intelligence, called him a puppet of the West and sworn that he would never allow him to rule.
Calling for an end to bitterness and division, Tsvangirai declared Monday: "I have signed this agreement because my belief in Zimbabwe and its people runs deeper than the scars that I bear from this struggle."
Economic paralysis was the main reason Mugabe was forced to the negotiating table. Independent economists believe that even the eye-popping official annual inflation figure is much too low.
The power-sharing deal ended a prolonged deadlock after March elections, whose official results gave Tsvangirai 48% and Mugabe 43%. Tsvangirai pulled out of a June runoff because of violence against his supporters. Although the ruling party claimed Mugabe won by a landslide, the result was condemned as undemocratic by African observers and the international community.
With ZANU-PF hard-liners ascendant in the party, one senior party official predicted there would be repeated deadlocks in parliamentary and Cabinet meetings.
"Mugabe is going to remain in power," he said, because the president will be chairman of the Cabinet.
