Harare - Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Wednesday he had given President Robert Mugabe a deadline on the resolution of issues threatening to derail the country's unity government.Tsvangirai was speaking ahead of a third meeting between the two
leaders on Thursday over the unilateral claw-back by Mugabe of the
telecommunications dossier from Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
"The outstanding issues cannot go on and on hanging over our hands,"
said Tsvangirai, while refusing to reveal what sort of ultimatum he had
issued 85-year-old Mugabe.
Mugabe earlier this month took telecommunications off MDC Information
Minister Nelson Chamisa and gave it to Transport Minister Nicholas
Goche – a member of the Zanu-PF party.
The move outraged the MDC, given that telecommunications covers spying.
The ongoing invasion of white-owned farms by Zanu-PF loyalists and
Mugabe’s refusal to review his unilateral appointments of the central
bank governor and attorney general are other issues threatening to
scupper the deal and putting the skids on foreign aid and investment.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has appealed for $10bn to rebuild the
tattered economy, but Western donors are waiting for proof of real
reforms before committing to anything more than emergency relief for
the millions of Zimbabweans, who cannot feed themselves.
So far, two meetings between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and deputy prime
minister Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway faction of
Tsvangirai’s MDC and the third signatory to September’s power-sharing
agreement, have failed to resolve the issues.
News24/DPA
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