Zimbabwean leaders to ink landmark deal Monday

Africa: Two alphas in one place to lead can never work. I give it six months before it falls apart.

Zimbabwe's political leaders were on Monday expected to sign a landmark political deal which will see the country's political rivals working together for the first time. The new government is the result of protracted talks which involved the ruling ZANU-PF, led by Robert Mugabe, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) under Morgan Tsvangirai and a splinter faction led by Arthur Mutambara which had been stalled by disagreements over the structure and composition of a government last month. The main opposition Sunday said its national governing council had agreed to support the power-sharing deal. "The national governing council has agreed to support this all inclusive government. It is hoped that this new deal will provide a new dawn and a new direction for the country, although there were some concerns on the issues of governors and the appointment of ministers by some of the members," Nelson Chamisa, MDC spokesperson told AFP. The announcement by the MDC came a day after ZANU-PF's politburo had also endorsed the accord.