Maravi

(HERALD) Ball now in MDC-T’s court, says President

Ball now in MDC-T’s court, says President
By Farirai Machivenyika

President Mugabe yesterday said Zanu-PF was committed to the Global Political Agreement, but reiterated that the party will not make further concessions until illegal Western sanctions imposed on the country are removed.

Addressing the 71st Ordinary Session of the Central Committee at the party’s headquarters in Harare yesterday, President Mugabe said MDC-T invited the sanctions and should call for their removal.

"Remarkable progress has been made in respect of the GPA and as Zanu-PF we have no intention to renege on the GPA process.

"The GPA is not about Zanu-PF alone, so let it not be in the minds of our opponents that the GPA is about Zanu-PF giving in to the MDC formations’ continuous demands.

"We all signed up to this agreement so, therefore, all parties should realise the full objectives, which also include (lifting of) sanctions.

"I am aware of your position not to make concessions until there is movement on sanctions," he said.

The Zanu-PF First Secretary emphasised that governors’ posts will not be reallocated until sanctions were removed.

"We have told the other side that there will be no movement on that matter. Governors will not be divided; let us see to those issues that worry us, such as sanctions.

"Sanctions must go in their entirety and that is when we will talk about governors.

"I have told the facilitators there will be no movement on our part until the issue is resolved," President Mugabe said.

He said MDC-T had urged the West to place any person with links to Zanu-PF on the travel sanctions list.

As a result, he noted — a woman from Thailand with close ties to the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe and had facilitated scholarships for Zimbabwean children — was deported from the US.

"The MDC cannot run away from the fact that they have to get those sanctions removed.

"There is reluctance on their part to get those sanctions off Zimbabwe," he said.

He castigated the West for trying to impose its thinking on the rest of the world.

President Mugabe said Zimbabwe was now looking to the East.

He said Western countries had attempted to redefine "blood diamonds" in a futile attempt to stop the sale of diamonds from Marange.

Zimbabweans should control their resources though foreigners were welcome as partners, he pointed out.

Turning to the Sadc Tribunal, whose operations regional leaders recently suspended, President Mugabe said the West had hijacked the body in an attempt to reverse Zimbabwe’s land reform programme.

"We are happy that Sadc has now tried to correct this mistake. At last Sadc has been persuaded to accept that the tribunal has no legal basis.

"To get acceptance it had to be ratified by at least two-thirds of the (Sadc) members.

"We understand that there was interference or interventions by some countries, vanana Britain, that the tribunal would be in place and the farmers would come to it.

"So now the house has collapsed and all those decisions which it made on Zimbabwe will become invalid.

"We are the creators of this monster and we said we thought we had created an animal which was proper, but no, we had created a monster," he said.

President Mugabe added: "Our view is that we should never allow the tribunal to deal with matters entrenched in our Constitution."

Some white former commercial farmers took Government to the tribunal to stop the State from acquiring land for redistribution to the black majority.

The tribunal granted their application but Harare rejected its ruling saying the court had no legal standing since the required number of member states had not ratified its charter.

Only five of Sadc’s 15 members have ratified the protocol creating the tribunal.

President Mugabe warned farmers not fully using their land and those leasing it to white former commercial farmers that they would lose it.

On the proposed new constitution, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, said Zanu-PF should ensure its revolutionary principles were upheld in the document.

President Mugabe urged party supporters to participate in the constitution-making process.

"Some people thought that we feared the exercise but far from it, we never fear any exercise which is progressive.

"I want to urge you to continue to back this outreach programme. Make sure that positions of Zanu-PF are enunciated in that outreach programme," he said, adding that violence would not be tolerated.

He said Zanu-PF had a rich legacy and had fought colonialism and injustice and urged those who had left to rejoin the party.

Before official proceedings started yesterday, the party observed a minute of silence in honour of heroes who passed away in the three months since their last meeting as the Central Committee.

These include national heroine Cde Sabina Mugabe, Kadoma Senator Cde Chiratidzo Gava and other provincial and liberation war heroes.

Labels: GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT, MDC, ROBERT MUGABE

posted by MrK @ 6:43 AM