Zimbabwe's finance minister Tendai Biti Harare - Zimbabwe's new finance minister said on Saturday the arrest of a ministerial candidate hours before he was to take oath in a unity government showed President Robert Mugabe's party was not ready to share power.Following Roy Bennett’s arrest on Friday on what his Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party says were treason charges, Finance
Minister Tendai Biti said the move was an ominous start for the unity
government sworn in the same day.
"Bennett’s arrest proves what we have always argued: that Zanu-PF is
not yet ready to work with anyone," said Biti, referring to Mugabe’s
party.
However Biti, who has been the Zimbabwe opposition MDC party’s number
two and faced treason charges himself in the past, ruled out a pull-out.
"Sadly we are forced to stay in this arrangement for the sake of the people of Zimbabwe," he said.
The MDC said in a statement that "the police are now saying they cannot
lay formal charges for now and will try and work out formal charges on
Monday".
Political motives
"These charges have been long discredited and have been shown, like all
treason charges levelled against MDC leadership, to be driven by
vindictive political motives," it added.
Bennett, designated to become deputy agriculture minister, was arrested
on Friday at an airport outside Harare shortly before Mugabe swore in
new ministers for the unity government.
The power sharing government will see the country’s bitter enemies try
and work together to pull Zimbabwe out of a deep crisis marked by
hunger, the world’s highest inflation rate and a deadly cholera
epidemic.
The fiesty Bennett struck an upbeat note in a statement issued on Saturday through his lawyer.
"Whatever these challenges, if we remain unwaveringly dedicated, we
will achieve peace, freedom and democracy in our life time – believe
me," he said.
Tsvangirai, a veteran opposition leader and a persistent thorn in
Mugabe’s side, struck a conciliatory tone on Friday before the new
government took oath.
"Unfortunately people are preoccupied with Mugabe as a person," he told
Britain’s Guardian newspaper, referring to his arch-foe, who has ruled
the country since its 1980 independence from Britain.
"Mugabe is part of the problem, but he is also part of the solution. He is not the obstacle we are now facing."
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