Harare // From across Zimbabwe they came, wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with portraits of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, to bear witness to a moment of history. Thousands of his supporters gathered joyfully outside the Rainbow Towers hotel, where after years of often beleaguered opposition, Mr Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing agreement that made him the country's prime minister.
Robert Mugabe, the octogenarian who has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, overseeing a collapse of the economy in recent years as he sought to retain power at almost any cost, remains president, and the two men, who have been bitter enemies for the best part of a decade, will now have to work together to try to rebuild the country. Mr Mugabe, a skilled political operator, has a history of drawing in his opponents and then crushing them in the embrace of his power. There are clauses in the agreement that Mr Mugabe can try to exploit. But none of his previous foes has had as much authority as Mr Tsvangirai.
"It's a step in the right direction," said Tichaona Mazhambe, 26, unemployed, from Glenville. He was unconcerned at the surreal sight of the two men shaking hands. "As a political move it's OK; it's our map to freedom." Even so, his friend Samson Kandare said: "It's not enough; we want Mugabe totally out of the picture. He's a bloody spoiler, a killer. We want the despotic movement to go away forever."
Mr Mugabe will no doubt do his utmost to avoid that - few independent observers believe he and his party, the Zanu-PF, are going into the agreement in good faith. But the collapse of the economy - inflation is running at more than 11 million per cent, 80 per cent of Zimbabweans are unemployed and the country largely survives on remittances from the millions who have gone abroad to seek work - has left them no choice, with the financial turmoil affecting the interests of Zanu-PF itself, which is a sprawling power network as much as a political party.
While the agreement states that both men "exercise executive authority", and does not explicitly define Mr Tsvangirai as head of the government, the two combined factions of the MDC - the leader of the other, Arthur Mutambara, is to be a deputy prime minister - will have a majority in cabinet. In the negotiations Mr Mugabe was adamant on chairing the ministerial body, which at one point threatened to collapse the entire process. He will now do so, but it will be overseen by a Council of Ministers whose meetings, led by Mr Tsvangirai, he will not attend.
Across the hotel lawn, Mr Mugabe's supporters gathered, wrapping themselves in Zimbabwean flags. Some insisted that Zanu-PF had the best of the deal, but their demeanour could not compete with that of the opposition. "It's not a good deal for us," said Willard, 22, from Masvingo, adding that there would be trouble in the near future. "There's no winner today. We can't work with those people. The principles are different."
The key issue is how the agreement will work in practice. Although the MDC has a majority at the top of government, the institutionalisation of power in the hands of Zanu-PF over the decades has left it dominating the pyramid of authority, and while there are undoubtedly secret MDC supporters spread throughout the structure, the new prime minister will have to find a way to impose himself on the machinery of government.
Mr Mugabe has to "consult" Mr Tsvangirai on key appointments, leaving open the possibility that he could try to ignore him. Nonetheless Ibbo Mandaza, a former government official well-connected to Zanu-PF who turned his back on the party to co-ordinate the presidential campaign of Simba Makoni, the former finance minister who ran against Mr Mugabe in March and came in third, said that Mr Mugabe was now "largely ceremonial".
At the signing ceremony, he said: "He was lost. The sense of defeat was palpable. He looked really dejected." But he warned: "The dangers are that you have this chap who lost elections and the process of negotiations have revived him politically. He should have been relegated to the dustbin of history. "It's a dangerous precedent for us in Africa. What's the meaning of elections if the outcome is never recognised?"
After Mr Mugabe came second in the first round of the presidential election - opposition officials still insist that Mr Tsvangirai took the absolute majority needed for outright victory - a campaign of state-sponsored violence was launched in which at least 200 MDC supporters were killed and which culminated in Mr Tsvangirai's pulling out of the second round of voting in June. Zimbabweans are tolerant people, who have not risen up despite the hardships that have been thrown at them, but the wounds will take a long time to heal.
In Chitungwiza, a sprawling workers' suburb south of the capital, Ashford Chipeyo, 28, was savagely beaten, along with three other people, by a mob of Zanu-PF supporters, then taken away, shot, and his body dumped. His father, Philemon, 59, was targeted because he is the district chairman of the MDC. "Blood was spilt all over this room," he said, sitting in his lounge. "It was a pool of blood. The other side of the house was burning and people were being beaten here."
The deal, he said, was a good thing, but nothing can compensate for his loss. "I can't say how I feel," he said. "Losing a son in such circumstances, it's difficult to say anything. I'm heartbroken." sberger@thenational.ae
