JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Is this what they meant when they called it a power-sharing agreement? When Zimbabwe's new "unity" government is sworn in this month, it will have two police ministers sitting in the same building with the same job and the same powers.
Analysts warn that the deal, reached a tortuous 10 months after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai stunned President Robert Mugabe in elections last year, is so riddled with those kinds of contradictions and nebulous boundaries that it may prove unworkable.
But should it fail, the deal will not only drag Zimbabwe further down. The accord, brokered by regional leaders in the Southern African Development Community, has become a litmus test for "African solutions for African problems," the idea that indigenous solutions work better in Africa than those imposed by the West.
Critics argue that African-brokered power-sharing deals such as those signed after Kenya's violent 2007 elections and Zimbabwe's disputed vote last year have set a precedent that leaders in Africa can cling to power when voted out, just by refusing to leave office.
They say bodies such as SADC and the African Union have done little to protect democracy or stop violence and human rights abuses, tending to side with incumbent leaders such as the long-ruling Mugabe, whose regime has been accused of unleashing violence to stay in power and denying food to opposition villagers.
Tony Reeler, analyst with the independent Research and Advocacy Unit in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, called last month's agreement "another SADC railroading job."
"With SADC, it's unity at all costs," he said. "I think that what's tending to emerge is that African solutions tend to be partisan, one way or another, and that's what we're seeing here.
"I think Zimbabwe is testing African solutions for African problems very harshly."
Mugabe's government blames the West's sanctions on regime officials for the country's problems and has accused the opposition of dragging its feet.
"It has been a long, frustrating, erratic, bumpy and quarrelsome journey characterized by animosities, disagreements, mutual dislikes, name-calling, demonizations, vilification of each other's policies and leaderships," said Patrick Chinamasa, the minister for justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, who was one of Mugabe's representatives in negotiations on the deal. Speaking in parliament, he continued, "But notwithstanding these negatives, what is important and significant is that we have managed to reach this far, and for that, we forever remain eternally grateful to our people for their resilience, understanding and support."
