Zim unity govt 'not imperative'
2005-08-15 16:47
Special Report
Four Chinese men face deportation from Zimbabwe after they were arrested for killing more than 40 tortoises for meat, a report says.
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.
Pretoria - The formation of a government of national unity in Zimbabwe was not necessarily the solution to that country's political problems, South Africa said on Monday.
Neither the ruling Zanu-PF nor the opposition Movement for Democratic Change regarded a unity government as an imperative, deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria.
"It would be useless, us insisting on something both sides say is not fundamental," he said.
The possibility of South Africa granting its neighbour a loan to pay off international debt did not turn on the creation of a national unity government, Pahad said.
The more pertinent consideration was that money loaned have an impact on the Zimbabwean economy.
Pahad said there was a need for a "real re-look" at how economic issues in Zimbabwe were dealt with.
This included the independence of the central bank, exchange rate intervention and getting agricultural productivity back on track.
- SAPA