APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) A three-member South African mediation team is due in Harare on Monday to meet negotiators from Zimbabwe’s three feuding political parties ahead of the resumption of talks to resolve sticking issues threatening to derail the country’s coalition government.

The South African facilitation team is led by President Jacob Zuma’s political adviser Charles Nqakula and includes special envoy Mac Maharaj and the president’s international relations adviser Lindiwe Zulu.

Industry Minister Welshman Ncube confirmed the visit by the South Africans, saying the mediators would Monday afternoon meet negotiators from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF and rival Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions headed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara.

Ncube is the head negotiator for the smaller Mutambara-led MDC faction.

South Africa brokered a 2008 power-sharing deal that gave birth to Zimbabwe’s coalition government last February and was last November asked by regional leaders to step in to help resolve a host of disagreements between the Zimbabwean parties and save the unity administration from collapse. President Zuma is the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s mediator in Zimbabwe.

Talks to resolve outstanding issues from the power-sharing agreement between ZANU PF and the MDC formations have dragged on since the former foes agreed to join hands in a coalition government that has been credited with stabilising the country’s economy to improve the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.

The MDC accuses Mugabe of flouting the global political agreement that gave birth to the unity government after the veteran leader refused to rescind his unilateral appointment of two of his allies to the key posts of central bank governor and attorney general. Mugabe has also refused to swear in MDC-T treasurer Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister and to appoint members of both MDC formations as provincial governors.

On its part ZANU PF insists it has done the most to uphold the power-sharing deal and instead accuses the MDC of reneging on promises to campaign for lifting of Western sanctions on Mugabe and his top allies.