Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) West funds Tsvangirai's Sadc trip

West funds Tsvangirai's Sadc trip
Our reporter
Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:36:00 +0000

PM Morgan Tsvangirai welcomes the Munich Mayor, Lord Mayor Hep Monatzeder as Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda looks on at the Harare International Airport on Friday Oct. 16 2008. The PM met the German mayor as he left on a regional tour to lobby for support for his “partial pullout” from the inclusive Government over Roy Bennett’s indictment.

QUESTIONS have emerged over how Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's trip to various Sadc countries was funded. The PM is said to have hired a private jet together with some airline staff and pilots.

Investigations by the Zimbabwe Guardian revealed that the PM's trip to the proposed four countries could go in excess of US$500, 000. He is visiting Mozambique, Angola, the DRC, South Africa and possibly Botswana.

Sources in Harare say PM Tsvangirai's trip was funded by western country officials he met with on Thursday morning.

On Friday, the Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, Ian Makone, tried to get permission for his boss to fly out when PM Tsvangirai was already on his way to the airport.

Makone also tried to get public funds for the trip, but the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet needed more details about the trip and confirmation from Cabinet.

According to regulations governing the Executive, Government officials do not leave the country without getting authority through the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet.

A University of Zimbabwe lecturer who spoke to the Zimbabwe Guardian said that this trip was probably arranged beforehand and funds secured from elsewhere. There was no way the PM would have secured the jet in such a short space of time without the help of professionals in the business and strong funding from somewhere, said the lecturer who preferred not to be named.

"This was an orchestrated move by the prime minister," said the lecturer in the Department of Social Studies.

"Many of us look with amazement at the way events are panning out in that party (the MDC-T). There is a group of people who obviously know what is going on and another that is in complete darkness as to what exactly is transpiring."

The move by PM Tsvangirai to disengage from the inclusive Government came after he had met with Western diplomatic officials and heads of NGOs.

PM Tsvangirai cancelled his weekly Council of Ministers meeting to accommodate these officials. According to reports from Harare, pressure from “some Western countries and NGOs” to act started as soon as MDC-T financier and treasurer-general Roy Bennett was indicted and it was clear he would soon face trial.

Sources said a small group of officials from the US, Britain, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Switzerland, Holland and Australia met with the PM on Thursday morning with some of them saying the party should announce a “collapse of the inclusive Government” while others said that was too drastic a decision.

James Maridadi, Tsvangirai's spokesman, rebutted claims that the PM had cancelled a Council of Ministers meeting that he chairs over the Bennett affair. It has now emerged that the meeting could not go ahead as the diplomats from Western countries were in an "urgent meeting" with the PM over Bennett.

The MDC-T party made the decision to pull out before Bennett's release on bail, proving that the decision had already been made at the Thursday meeting.

On Friday morning before Bennett's release, PM Tsvangirai is reported to have met with accreddited ambassadors to cover up Thursday's meetings where the "partial pullout" was agreed.

Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, SADC

posted by MrK @ 5:33 AM