My diary today was quite wide ranging, Tsvangirai told ZimOnline during a brief visit to his office at Munhumutapa building.
Tsvangirai, who was preparing to meet some officials from donor groups
later in the day, said he would officially start work on Monday after a
Cabinet is constituted today. He said he had spent most of the day on
Thursday familiarising himself with his new office as well as holding
series of consultative meetings.
He said: I've been dealing with a number of consultative meetings. I
have met the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), I went to see
the prisoners in Chikurubi and I went to see the mother of our vice
president (Thokozani Khupe) who was involved in an accident and is
recovering.
This afternoon I had a brief with the Chief Secretary (to the
President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda) on some of the work with the
public service and security, said Tsvangirai.
He was due to meet President Robert Mugabe later on in the day to finalise on the Cabinet.
I'm going to hand over our list to the President, our list for Cabinet
for tomorrow (Friday). So, it has been quite a hectic day, he said.
Asked about fate human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and scores of
activists from his MDC party detained at Chikurubi, Tsvangirai – who on
his inauguration called for the activists' immediate release from
prison – said they would be freed but the legal process had to take its
course.
But those who are not in good health have been allowed to go to
Avenues Clinic for medical attention. Others are in good shape but
others you know what happens in confinement. But their spirits are very
high and I'm happy that we managed to give them some morale support,
he said.
Tsvangirai said he was working hard to ensure civil servants are paid
in hard cash by the end of this month as he promised on Wednesday.
He said: I can't certainly tell you where I'm going to get the funds
from but I have made a commitment and we have to find the money to pay
them. But how much, it still hasn't been decided.
But we must find something to alleviate the plight of our people who
have been receiving worthless currency. They are being given worthless
vouchers. What we want is that if you are going to have a productive
workforce then you must boost the morale of the workers.
Zimbabweans hope the unity government will act urgently to end an
economic and humanitarians crisis gripping the country for the past
decade and seen in hyperinflation, record unemployment and acute
shortages of food and basic commodities. – ZimOnline