Robert Mugabe to form minority cabinet in Zimbabwe
The Australian
August 29, 2008
JOHANNESBURG: Zimbabwe's veteran ruler, Robert Mugabe, will defy the
opposition and form a new government despite stalled talks on
power-sharing after contested polls, the junior information minister
said yesterday.
"Nothing is going to stop us from forming a new government," Bright
Matonga told South African public broadcaster SAFM, disregarding
warnings by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change that doing so
would scupper the talks. "We need to move forward; we need to make sure
that Zimbabwe regains its status; we need to work on the economy.
People are suffering.
"That is the mandate that he (Mugabe) was given by the SADC (Southern
African Development Community regional bloc) and he is not going to
stop forming that new cabinet. The MDC are not serious at all."
Matonga was responding to a statement by MDC secretary-general Tendai
Biti that Mugabe would be violating a recent agreement between the
ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition, as well as jeopardising
power-sharing negotiations, if he unilaterally formed a government.
The talks on creating a unity government to end a ruinous political
crisis were suspended a little over two weeks ago.
"You will be killing the talks. Once you form a government, forget
about talks. It is a disaster and an act of insanity to think that
Mugabe can go it alone" Mr Biti said.
"Formally, we are going to write a letter to the facilitator (South
African President Thabo Mbeki) about the breaches that have occurred,"
he said, referring to an Mbeki-mediated agreement of July 21 signed by
the ruling party, the main MDC and its breakaway faction.
Zimbabwe's new parliament opened this week, five months after contested
elections in which Mugabe's party lost legislative majority for the
first time since the country's independence from Britain in 1980, when
Mugabe came to power.
The 84-year-old Mugabe also lost to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
in the first round of the presidential election but was re-elected in a
one-man runoff after Mr Tsvangirai boycotted the poll, alleging
intimidation and violence.
Mugabe on Tuesday made gibes at the MDC after facing opposition jeers
that drowned out parts of his ceremonial opening speech at parliament,
an unparalleled domestic public humiliation for a man who has ruled his
country for almost three decades.
"We shall soon be setting up a government. The MDC does not want to
come in, apparently," the government newspaper, The Herald, quoted
Mugabe as saying.
"This time they have been promised by the British that sanctions would
be more devastating, that in six months' time the government will
collapse.
"I do not know when that day will come. I wish Tsvangirai well on that
day."
Edwin Mushoriwa, spokesman for an MDC faction with whom Mugabe's
ZANU-PF could conceivably form a majority in parliament, said it would
not join a Mugabe government.
Mugabe's plans to form a cabinet mean he will be drawing his ministers
from the minority party in parliament, in apparent violation of basic
constitutional principles.
He faces being censured by the SADC and losing the sup****t of Mr Mbeki.
AFP, The Times
|
