Zim GNU not in danger - PM

2009-06-30 15:11

Harare - Zimbabwe's troubled coalition government is in no danger of collapsing despite accusations President Robert Mugabe's party is blocking reform, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Tuesday.

Tsvangirai, a former opposition leader who joined Mugabe in the unity government in February, spoke to reporters a day after one of Tsvangirai's top deputies said their party was considering disengaging from the coalition.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change has complained about harassment and arrests of Mugabe's opponents and Mugabe's unilateral appointments of top officials. But Tsvangirai said on Tuesday that leaders must stand by their political commitments.

"There are frustrations," Tsvangirai said of the comments on Monday from his deputy, Thokozani Khupe, about disengaging. But "certainly I can assure you there's no pulling out of this agreement. There's no reason the government is going to collapse" .

Violent confrontation

Some of Tsvangirai's supporters within and outside his party had questioned the wisdom of entering the coalition, and tensions within the Movement for Democratic Change have been evident for months.

 But Tsvangirai has long insisted he sees the coalition as the only way to move Zimbabwe forward, and, so far, his opinion has prevailed.

Khupe said the latest irritant came when Mugabe rescheduled the weekly Cabinet meeting from Tuesday to Monday because he was going to be out of town for an African Union summit in Libya. At a news conference, Khupe depicted that as a snub to Tsvangirai, her party's leader, saying he should have chaired the meeting in Mugabe's absence.

Tsvangirai and Mugabe formed their coalition after being pressed by neighbours to end a decade of violent confrontation and work together to resolve the southern African nation's severe economic crisis.

Problems in the coalition

Tsvangirai said on Tuesday he and Mugabe would discuss problems in the coalition when Mugabe returned from the AU summit.

Tsvangirai's party earlier had called on the neighbouring countries in the Southern African Development Community that pushed for the coalition to step in to help sort out problems, but the prime minister said on Tuesday that Zimbabwe's leaders could come to a resolution.

"We can do this on our own," Tsvangirai said. "We don't even need Sadc."

Tsvangirai's party has objected to Mugabe's appointment of loyalists as the central bank governor and the attorney general, the arrests of and attacks on independent rights activists and Movement for Democratic Change lawmakers, and the seizures of white-owned farms.

The Movement for Democratic Change also accuses Mugabe loyalists of blocking democratic and media reforms.

- AP