Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have so far been unable to agree on how to divide cabinet posts to form a government of national unity. 

Last week Mr. Mugabe sacked nine ministers and three deputy ministers who lost seats in last March’s polls. This week Zimbabwean newspaper the “Herald” announced that a government was most likely to be in place by the end of February when Mugabe returns from a month-long holiday.

George Katito, a researcher of African Governance and the African Peer Review Mechanism in South Africa told VOA reporter Akwei Thompson that a major contention in the stalemate remains the division of key ministerial posts.

He said there did not seem to be a consensus of the two contending parties as to which of the two main political parties would control key ministries including the justice ministry and the department of finance. “The key ministry which seems at the fore is of course the control of the security forces and more specifically, the national security council…,” Katito said.

The South African analyst confirmed reports that Mugabe would go ahead and form a government upon his return from vacation, but he added “…over the past few days as well we’ve had reports from within the MDC offering to enter into some sort of talks with President Robert Mugabe…”

As to what role the MDC would play if Mugabe went ahead to form a government at the end of February, Katito said “I think certainly what we’ve heard from ZANU-PF and Robert Mugabe is very few encouraging signs that the MDC would have any serious role to play within the government that the ZANU-PF would form.”