IT WAS the day millions of Zimbabweans never thought they'd see: president Robert Mugabe embracing his bitter rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, and calling him brother.
Less than three months after Mr Mugabe proclaimed himself the winner of a violence-racked poll, the 84-year-old president yesterday signed a historic unity deal with two opposition leaders that will effectively end his three-decade-long stranglehold
on power.
In scenes of euphoria, thousands of Zimbabweans wearing opposition party regalia sang and danced outside the Harare hotel where the signing ceremony was taking place.
"This agreement sees the return of hope to all our lives," Mr Tsvangirai told around 3,000 invited guests.
"I've signed this agreement because I believe it represents the best opportunity for us to build a peaceful and prosperous democratic Zimbabwe."
The first 30 pages of the agreement were released yesterday. Under the deal, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader will become prime minister and head a council of ministers that will supervise Mr Mugabe's cabinet.
Mr Mugabe will remain head of state, but his cabinet will comprise a majority of MDC members: 13 from Mr Tsvangirai's faction of the MDC and three from a smaller faction led by Arthur Mutambara, who also signed the deal. There will be 15 ministers from Zanu-PF.
An unusually subdued Mr Mugabe said: "We have fought all along as enemies, but now we cannot avoid each other. We are committed; I am committed. Let us all be committed."
With nine African heads of state in attendance and a humanitarian crisis that threatens 5.1 million Zimbabweans, Mr Mugabe was forced to bow to the inevitable.
His militias stand accused of killing up to 200 MDC supporters in the weeks following Mr Tsvangirai's victory in the first round of presidential elections in March. Hundreds more were beaten and had their homes destroyed.
In the eight years since the launch of Mr Mugabe's takeovers of white farms, life has become harder for all but the president's cronies. There are shortages of food, fuel, cash and electricity. Hyperinflation has reached 20 million per cent.
Yesterday's signing ceremony was welcomed as a victory for the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who facilitated the talks. He called it a "wonderful" agreement, but conceded that discussions about the unity government still had to be finalised.
Opposition insiders say there are disputes over ministerial appointments, with Zanu-PF reluctant to take responsibility for the very difficult portfolios of finance and agriculture.
Yesterday, beyond the cheering and the evident relief of regional SADC leaders, it was difficult to ignore Zimbabweans' old hatreds still simmering.
A large bank of Zanu-PF supporters, including chiefs in traditional red and blue regalia, sat stony-faced throughout Mr Tsvangirai's speech. Some of the main MDC leader's supporters loudly heckled Mr Mutambara. The party split acrimoniously in 2005.
Mr Mugabe barely succeeded in masking his bitterness, sinking his head in his hands at one point.
"There are lots of things I did not like and still do not like" in the agreement, he said. But "as long as salient principles are recognised, there will be room for more agreement".
He repeated his claim that the former colonial power, Britain, wanted to impose regime change. He provoked jeers when he said that democracy was a "difficult proposition in Africa" and claimed opposition parties used violence to get into power.
Below the top table, his wife, Grace, sat with her arms folded. It wasn't hard to see the source of some of her discomfort in the shape of Susan Tsvangirai, Morgan's wife, sitting opposite wearing a cream suit and glittering diamante jewellery.
Mr Tsvangirai was more conciliatory, quoting words that Mr Mugabe used in his independence speech of 1980: "Let us turn our swords into ploughshares. I would like to thank the people of Zimbabwe for not wavering in the face of hardships."
The Tanzanian president, Jakaya Kikwete, the chairman of the AU, told the opposition leader he and his MDC party "had made all of us proud".
Outside the signing ceremony, opposition supporters were rapturous.
"It's been a long road, but we've got here at last," said the former MDC mayor of Mutare, Misheck Kagurabadza.
"This is the best day of my life," screamed one woman in a red and white MDC T-shirt, embracing this reporter. "We are going to govern now."
But yards away, a truck of blue-helmeted, baton-wielding riot police waited.
Waving election posters, dozens of Zanu-PF supporters banged on the car windscreen.
"He's a good man," shouted one youth, gesturing towards the picture of Mr Mugabe. "He's still in power."
