Zimbabwe’s new prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has called on the
world "to get over" President Robert Mugabe and stop seeing him as the
principal problem facing his country.
Speaking to the Guardian shortly before ministers in the new
powersharing government were due to be sworn in today, Tsvangirai said
that his most immediate challenges – from finding the money to pay
government workers and prising political detainees from prison, to
purging the system of some of its worst crooks- now have little to do
with the man who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence 29 years ago.
"Unfortunately people are preoccupied with Mugabe as a person. They
need to get over it. This has gone beyond Mugabe. People need to stop
talking about him as the only issue. Mugabe is part of the problem but
he is also part of the solution. He is not the obstacle we are now
facing," he said.
But hours later, Tsvangirai received a sharp reminder of another more
sinister challenge his administration faces as one of his new
ministers, Roy Bennett, was arrested today. The Movement for Democratic
Change said Bennett, a former white farmer who is a particularly hated
figure within Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, was "abducted" by the police law and
order unit.
The detention, along with the continued imprisonment of dozens of
opposition supporters who have been held for months and tortured,
reflects deep divisions within the upper echelons of Mugabe’s power
structure, with some of the military chiefs apparently attempting to
sabotage the powersharing agreement that brought Tsvangirai into
government.
The MDC believes that if it can establish itself as a partner in
government, pay civil servants and bring in foreign aid, power will
bleed from Mugabe and Zanu-PF to Tsvangirai.
But the coming days will be difficult as hardliners, such as the armed
forces chief, Constantine Chiwenga, the police chief, Augustine
Chihuri, and other senior security officials who said they would never
recognise Tsvangirai’s authority, keep up attempts to undermine the new
political setup.
The new prime minister won immediate support from government workers
after his inauguration on Wednesday by promising that civil servants,
the police and soldiers – struggling along on salaries in nearly
worthless Zimbabwe dollars – will be paid in hard currency at the end
of the month.
But there were immediate questions about where the money to pay them is
coming from, given the state’s coffers are nearly empty and foreign
governments have said they want to see if Tsvangirai is really in
charge before they start handing over a £1.2bn aid package.
Tsvangirai needs to find about $100m by the end of the month to pay
236,000 civil servants, teachers and health workers, as well as the
police and military, in foreign currency. Some of his party colleagues
had urged him not to make such a specific commitment at his
inauguration. But the new prime minister told them that there was no
hope of beginning to rebuild Zimbabwe without getting government
employees back to work.
"It was not something lightly considered. It’s not something you just
say. We will meet the commitments. I can assure you we will find the
funds," he said.
Eddie Cross, nominated to be the MDC’s new state enterprises minister,
said the government already had a commitment of $50m from foreign
donors, although he did not name them.
Money is the key to reviving Zimbabwe’s economy, but Britain and other
donors have laid down several standards by which the new administration
will be judged, before the money is released. These include a return to
the rule of law, the freeing of political detainees and the lifting of
draconian restrictions on the independent press.
"People have set benchmarks," said Tsvangirai. "We have to earn the
confidence of the international community. Their scepticism is
justified. This is 29 years of one-man rule. But I’m quite certain if
we start moving on the benchmarks, that will be the basis for
incremental support. It’s a process of engagement."
An early marker will be the fate of the central bank governor, Gideon
Gono, who has overseen world-record inflation running above 10
sextillion percent and the eradication of the national currency, as he
did the electronic equivalent of furiously printing money by adding
strings of zeros to government bank accounts. He also facilitated the
plunder of Zimbabwe’s coffers by its ruling elite.
Western governments want him out. So do most Zimbabweans, but he has
clung to office in part because he has a hold over other Zanu-PF
leaders, because he knows who stole what.
Tsvangirai acknowledges that getting rid of Gono and the attorney
general, Johannes Tomana, who has abused the law to lock up Mugabe’s
opponents, will be seen by foreigners and Zimbabweans as an early test
of his power.
"We are dealing with that issue of Gono. The government has to deal
with it because I appreciate that people have no confidence in our
central bank governor and our attorney general. It is an issue that was
addressed in the [South Africa-brokered regional] negotiations. It will
be dealt with," he said.
Asked how, he said: "We recognise that it will be hard to win the
donors’ confidence if the central bank governor is still there. I
cannot say more right now but it will be dealt with."
Another early test is the fate of 30 political detainees who have been
held for months and brutally tortured. Tsvangirai sought to dampen
accusations that he is not doing enough for them, in part because he
abandoned a pledge not to be sworn in until they were free, by visiting
Chikurubi maximum security prison yesterday and demanding to see the
political prisoners.
He succeeded in getting three of them moved to a private clinic for
treatment, including Jestina Mukoko, who is reported to be ill. But
prison authorities removed Mukoko from the hospital a few hours later
and returned her to jail.
Tsvangirai acknowledges that their continued detention is seen by many
as a test of whether he wields sufficient power to overcome the
hardliners.
"I do agree that it’s a question of credibility," he said. "I went to
the prison and talked with them and said it is taking longer than we
anticipated but we are dealing with it."
Asked why it is taking longer than anticipated, he said:"The problem is
not Mugabe. It lies elsewhere. It is others. We need to overcome that,"
he said, declining to name names.
Tsvangirai said that while the dissent by the old regime’s hardliners
was of concern, he did not believe they would be able to retain power
or carry out a coup.
"The region won’t accept it. The world won’t accept it. They can’t get
away with it," he said "We know there are people who are disgruntled.
We know the agreement does not have support from all parties. The
leadership challenge for us is to negotiate away these areas of
disgruntlement. We can do that and we are going to begin by getting
people back to work."