HARARE Zimbabwes three ruling parties on Wednesday shrugged off their political differences to attend a full Cabinet meeting chaired by President Robert Mugabe, (Pictured: PRIME MINISTER TSVANGIRAI . . . MDC-T party leader)
the first such meeting after a three-week boycott by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party that had threatened to derail the coalition government. Tsvangirais spokesman James Maridadi said the MDC-T ministers attended Cabinet in line with a recommendation by the Southern African Development Community (SADC)s defence and politics organ that all Zimbabwes political parties resume full engagement to try to resolve their differences.
They were in attendance (Cabinet). Remember they suspended the disengagement to give SADC and the new facilitator President Jacob Zuma (of South Africa) a chance to deal with the Zimbabwe situation and try and bring finality to it, said Maridadi. A spokesman for the smaller MDC-M formation led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara that had not boycotted Cabinet said: We have a standing resolution that our ministers should attend all Cabinet meetings. So if our other colleagues also attended, at least they have fulfilled the SADC resolution.
Mugabes spokesman George Charamba was not immediately available for comment on the matter.
The MDC-T stopped attending Cabinet on October 16 to protest what Mugabes refusal to quicken the pace of democratic reforms and to resolve a host of outstanding issues from last years global political agreement that led to formation of the coalition government. But a meeting of the SADC organ on politics and defence, also known as the Troika, last week ordered the Zimbabwean parties to resume dialogue and gave Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara 30 days to resolve the outstanding issues. The outstanding include Mugabes refusal to rescind his unilateral appointment of two of his top allies to head Zimbabwes central bank and the attorney generals office.
Mugabe has also refused to swear in Tsvangirai ally Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister while the MDC-T is also unhappy by what it says is selective application of the law to target its activists and officials. On the other hand Mugabes ZANU PF party, which insists it has met all its obligations under the GPA, accuses the MDC-T of not living up to a promise to lead a campaign for lifting of Western sanctions against the veteran Zimbabwean leader and members of his inner circle.
Post published in: News