"It’s now next week," James Maridadi told AFP without saying why the speech had been deferred. "We don’t have the date yet, but it’s next week."
Government sources said Tsvangirai was attending a weekly Cabinet meeting, prompting the postponement of his speech.
Tsvangirai and long-ruling President Robert Mugabe formed a unity
government in February to ease tensions and tackle an economic crisis
which saw inflation at one point peak to a conservatively estimated 231
million per cent.
But analysts say the unity government has yet to make key reforms
guaranteeing political and media freedoms, highlighted by the arrest on
Monday of two leading newspaper editors.
Three months after the formation of the new government the political
parties have yet to resolve outstanding issues including the
appointment of provincial governors.
Violence on white-owned farms continues, while activists from
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been detained on
charges of seeking to topple Mugabe.
The fledgling government has declared itself broke and is unable to pay workers salaries, only managing a $100 allowance.
Schools and public hospitals re-opened after nearly year-long strikes
by workers, but hospitals still have few drugs while teachers have
renewed a threat to strike over their meagre wages.
News24/Agence France Presse (AFP)
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