About 100 members of the Revolutionary Youth Movement of Zimbabwe handed a petition to the presidency at the Union Buildings on Friday in protest against the political impasse in that country.

The movement's president Simon Mudekwa said the petition was handed over shortly after midday.

"It was signed by various organisations even civil society over a two week timeframe," he said.

The protesters called for, among other things, the speeding up of the process to create a new democratic constitution and the equitable sharing of key ministries between the parties.

Zimbabwe is yet to distribute cabinet posts following last month's historic power-sharing deal between president Robert Mugabe and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) counterpart Morgan Tsvangirai.

The posts were to be distributed between Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, Tsvangirai's MDC and an MDC faction.

"People are suffering, that is why we are requesting help from the new president [President Kgalema Motlanthe].

"We hope he's the man we've been waiting for because we cannot solve our problem without the help of other countries," said Mudekwa, adding that it was a peaceful demonstration.

Sapa