MDC strike to go ahead
2008-04-14 18:45
Special Report
Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan Tsvangirai has called for openness in the country’s nascent diamond trade, getting underway after the lifting of a global ban over rights abuses.
A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition confirmed its call for a general strike from Tuesday after the high court quashed its legal bid to force the immediate release of the presidential election results.
"We are calling on the public to speak against ZEC (the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) for failing to release the results," the Movement for Democratic Change's vice-president Thokhozani Khupe told reporters.
"We have called for a mass stay-in, starting tomorrow, until the results are released."
Khupe was speaking shortly after Justice Tendai Uchena turned down a petition by the party that he order the electoral commission to end its silence over the March 29 election.
In her news conference, Khupe said that it had now been proved that voting on its own was not enough to bring about a regime change and accused President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party of trying to use the delay since the elections to fix the result.
"We are receiving information that the ballot boxes are being kept by Zanu-PF, that they have been stuffing more ballot papers," she said.
"What we want is for ZEC to announce the results. We hope every Zimbabwean takes it upon themselves to speak out and be heard. Voting alone was not enough. We want our results, the time has come."
- AFP