(TALKZIMBABWE) Gvt making progress, come back home: Tsvangirai

Gvt making progress, come back home: Tsvangirai
Philip Murombedzi
Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:20:00 +0000

ZANU PF and the two formations of the MDC have made progress on implementing the conditions of the inclusive Government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday. "I want to assure you there is progress," PM Tsvangirai told a media briefing in Cape Town, South Africa.

He said negotiations covered the positions of central bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana, appointed before the formation of the inclusive Government and not covered by the agreement, but whom the MDC and Western donors would like to see removed from their posts.

The MDC-T party, which boycotted Cabinet meetings with in a dispute over the indictment of their party's treausrer Roy Bennett, ended the boycott last month.

"Now that these issues are being attended to, we want to open a new chapter and say that the inclusive Gvernment is consolidating and that we need to build momentum to ensure we can reconstruct the country," PM Tsvangirai said.

The inclusive Government is battling to rebuild an economy officially estimated to have contracted by 50 percent between 2000 and 2008 due to illegal; sanctions imposed by Britain and United States and their allies.

The economy is on track to expand for the first time in a decade this year and to grow by 7 percent in 2010 as agriculture and mining start to recover.

"An increase in the capacity of mine manufacturing from 10 percent to 30 percent will have a direct impact on the growth the minister (Finance Minister Tendai Biti) is anticipating and I think it can be achieved," Tsvangirai said.

PM URGES ZIMBABWEANS TO COME HOME

The Prime Minister also urged Zimbabweans to "return home to take part in the reconstruction of the country".

He said that he was having to convince sceptics that had a role to play in rebuilding the country.

"My message is that this is the time to consider taking part in the reconstruction phase of Zimbabwe by Zimbabweans who are in the diaspora," Tsvangirai said.

He said the Zimbabwean diaspora constituted almost four million skills of various attributes needed in Zimbabwe for its reconstruction.

"I am here to convince the sceptics who are quite wide ranging, including my own countrymen. This is not a salesman's job. It is real serious patriotic challenge to all Zimbabweans to come and really create a Zimbabwe we demand and deserve."

The Zimbabwean government, in turn, had to provide the necessary policy measures and confidence to Zimbabweans for them to consider participating in the country's reconstruction.

"It is a two way process," he said.

Things had changed for the better since the global political agreement (GPA) was signed last year, he said.

"For the past ten months a lot of social economic progress has been registered in terms of socio-economic stabilisation.

"I am sure with current negotiations taking place on implementation of the GPA we should see more freedoms being restored, through the constitutional reform process, through the legislative reform process and other reforms we have put in place," said PM Tsvangirai.