(NEWZIMBABWE) PM: We'll succeed or fail together

PM: We'll succeed or fail together
by
29/06/2009 00:00:00

ZIMBABWE’S Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday defended his move to enter a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe, saying they would succeed or fail together.

“Those who accept me have to accept Robert Mugabe.… If there is a problem, we go and fail together,” Tsvangirai told reporters in Johannesburg following a three-week tour to London, Washington, Berlin, Stockholm, Brussels and Paris.

“I don’t have to defend Mugabe’s past and position towards the West or other countries,” said the former opposition stalwart, who challenged Mugabe in a bitterly disputed election last year .

“We are in this transition and this transition is working,” he added.
He also said his tour to drum up support for the “new” Zimbabwe was a success despite criticism from Western leaders of continued human rights abuses and he insisted that political and economic reforms were gathering pace.

“The reforms are not stopping, they are accelerating,” he said. “I’m happy with the pace.… It has to take into consideration the local realities, the sensitivities.”
The country’s unity government was formed on February 11 and tasked with steering Zimbabwe back to stability after disputed elections plunged the country even deeper into crisis and world record inflation.

It has appealed for 8.3 billion (about R65.7bn) to rebuild the shattered economy but the assistance has so far come in dribs and drabs.

Tsvangirai’s tour – which saw the first official talks with the European Union in seven years – did not see big aid pledges and he was told repeatedly that Zimbabwe needed to improve its rights record and deepen reforms.



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Britain pledged an extra £5m (about R65m) in aid but urged more reform.
The United States offered 73m (about R578m) but President Barack Obama cited concern “about consolidating democracy, human rights and rule of law.”

But Tsvangirai on Saturday put a positive spin both on his tour and the situation in the country.
“This transition is irreversible,” he said.

He listed reforms to the constitution, to the security sector, to the reserve bank and to investment laws as examples.

On the last day of Tsvangirai’s trip, Mugabe mocked the West for refusing to lift sanctions against him and his inner circle until the country’s unity government introduced tangible reforms. — Sapa-AFP