After months of talks, Morgan Tsvangirai will become the prime minister of Zimbabwe on February 11, while Robert Mugabe will remain president despite his loss in an election ten months ago.
Tsvangirai did not win as many concessions from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party as he had hoped. Zanu-PF and the MDC, Tsvangirai's party, will share the post of home-affairs minister, which controls the police, and Zanu-PF's extensive power network will remain in place.
During the months of deadlock, Mugabe seized the chance to reinforce his power. Last month, he reappointed Gideon Gono, the governor of the Reserve Bank, for another five-year term. Gono, who one diplomat called the "destroyer of Zimbabwe's economy", has been a central figure in the country's collapse. Under his leadership, the Reserve Bank has printed money with abandon, helping to cause hyperinflation and wreck confidence in its decisions. By keeping Gono, Mugabe may succeed in shutting the MDC out of economic policy and blocking reforms, even if an ally of Tsvangirai becomes finance minister.
Currently, 94 percent of Zimbabwe's population is jobless, and 80 percent depend on food aid.
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