APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe’s inter-party talks are set to resume Sunday as the state media reported that the timeframe set by a regional security summit last month was not carved in stone.

The state-run Sunday Mail said negotiators representing Zimbabwe’s main political parties are expected to meet in Harare on Sunday for formal discussions aimed at ironing out sticking points around the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

The meeting comes a day after the lapse of the 15-day timeframe (on Saturday) set by the security organ of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) which met in Mozambique on 29 October.

A negotiator from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF said his party and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations had failed to meet within the stipulated time-frame because some of the negotiators were out of the country on ministerial business.

“The SADC Organ timeline was not cast in stone. The situation is not like that of a school where the headmaster would punish us for not meeting the timeline,” Nicholas Goche told the newspaper.

The main MDC faction led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday accused ZANU PF and the smaller MDC formation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara of dragging their feet on the talks meant to break a deadlock over outstanding issues from the GPA which led to the formation of Zimbabwe’s coalition government in February.

SADC had given the feuding parties up to 21 November to agree on sticking points and another 15 days within which to implement the agreed matters.