MDC warns against excluding Tsvangirai from unity govt

MDC warns against excluding Tsvangirai from unity govt
By Kingsley Kaswende in Harare
Tuesday August 19, 2008 [04:00]

The opposition MDC has warned that any attempts by ZANU-PF to exclude Morgan Tsvangirai in the unity government would kill the dialogue. The MDC stated yesterday that the reported attempts by President Robert Mugabe to assemble a new “coalition” government with the smaller MDC faction led by Prof Arthur Mutambara as a result of Tsvangirai’s refusal to accept the deal in its current form, would lead to the opposition party pulling out of the talks.

“...Reports have indicated that Robert Mugabe, pursuant to the deal that he signed with Arthur Mutambara, is going to form a government to the extent that the SADC dialogue that we chose is going to be ignored. This will fundamentally undermine and kill the dialogue,” an MDC statement stated.

Both ZANU-PF and Prof Mutambara’s MDC faction have agreed to the current form of the unity government deal but Tsvangirai has rejected one aspect which regards how much power he will share with President Mugabe, leading to the talks stalling.

An attempt by the SADC summit that closed in Johannesburg on Sunday to seal the deal was in vain. South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been facilitating the talks and will now double up as SADC chair, on Sunday said it would be necessary for Zimbabwe to convene parliament soon while the talks proceeded. He had earlier said the establishment of a new government would have to wait for a deal to be struck among the parties.

Members of parliament have not been sworn in more than four months after they were elected.

Meanwhile, the MDC has accused ZANU-PF of attempting to “steal” their MPs to be included in the reported new government.

“ZANU-PF government ministers and functionaries including (intelligence) agents have approached an extensive number of our members of parliament asking them to submit their CVs and asking them to be part of a Mugabe’s mendacious and dishonest government,” the statement read.

“These are the actions of a desperate and cornered regime, which we find corrosive. An opportunity has been presented through dialogue for a fresh start and restart. Let’s us all finish this process honestly and decently.”