Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change formation headed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai issued a year-end statement Wednesday saying it hoped all the so-called outstanding issues troubling its power-sharing with the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe could be resolved in the opening days of 2010 - but a ZANU-PF response was not encouraging.
The MDC statement said the party was disheartened that victims of political violence and other crimes committed during the 2008 elections, which gave the Tsvangirai MDC formation and a rival grouping led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara a parliamentary majority, had not been compensated. The statement said such compensation should be addressed in 2010.
The former opposition party said it will focus on the proposed constitutional revision in 2010 to make sure the new basic document is people-driven.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said his party also wants to work hard to weed out corruption in local authorities as well as the central government.
Responding, ZANU-PF Deputy Spokesman Ephraim Masawi said that as far as the former ruling party is concerned there are no remaining outstanding issues other than Western targeted sanctions, which he said the MDC must work to have lifted. Masawi said the question of replacing Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana, as demanded by the Tsvangirai MDC, is not on the table.
