Accessibility links

Breaking News

Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai Urges Regional Grouping to Enforce Power-Sharing Pact


Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe said Tuesday that his formation of the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change has been disappointed by failure of the national unity government to implement key aspects of the Global Political Agreement underpinning the power-sharing arrangement in place since February.

Mr. Tsvangirai called upon the Southern African Development Community, whose leaders are to meet in summit next week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to examine that failure.

As Harare correspondent Irwin Chifera of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe reported, the prime minister in a news conference called it "regrettable" for instance that despite agreements on the allocation of provincial governorships, no MDC governors have been sworn in.

Meanwhile, sources in Tsvangirai’s MDC formation said they were increasingly frustrated by what they called delaying tactics on the part of President Robert Mugabe in implementing agreed measures such as swearing-in deputy agriculture minister designate Roy Bennett.

MDC sources said Mr. Mugabe now spends most of his time out of the country attending even minor diplomatic functions to avoid tackling the political logjam at home.

They noted that South African President and SADC Chairman Jacob Zuma urged principals in the unity government to meet Monday to resolve outstanding issues troubling their power-sharing arrangement, Mr. Mugabe flew off to an African Union summit in Tripoli.

Some other countries dispatched vice presidents to the AU meeting, convened on the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.

Political analyst Charles Mangongera told reporter Blessing Zulu that procrastination and misdirection are familiar tactics in the repertoire of President Mugabe.

More reports from VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe...

XS
SM
MD
LG