'Stop insulting one another'
28/02/2008 12:02  - (SA)  

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Zimbabwe Special Report  Latest Zimbabwe Stories

Harare - A little-known independent candidate for the Zimbabwe presidential elections said on Thursday that Zimbabweans should stop "hurling insults" at each other.

Zimbabwe's three main candidates for the March 29 poll were long-time incumbent President Robert Mugabe, main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and ex-finance minister Simba Makoni.

But a fourth candidate, independent Langton Towungana, who few had ever heard of before nomination courts sat earlier this month, had emerged in favourable reports in the state media, which were traditionally hostile to opposition candidates.

Towunga, who was from the western tourist resort of Victoria Falls and who had already been interviewed on prime-time TV, said in an interview on Thursday with the state-controlled Herald that Zimbabwe had to engage the international community if it wanted to turn around the economy.

'We are one nation'

Zimbabwe's economy was in its worst crisis since independence in 1980, with annual inflation at more than 100 000% and critical shortages of essential drugs, some foods and foreign currency.

"We are one nation. We are Zimbabweans. Let's understand each other because we cannot develop the nation by hurling insults at each other," Towungana said.

The Herald, which was the only daily left in Zimbabwe since armed police shut down the popular Daily News in 2003 carried a much shorter report on a tour of high-density suburbs by Tsvangirai.

The paper said the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader had commiserated with Harare residents for the suffering they were going through.

But, the Herald added, the sufferings were "ironically caused by the MDC, which urged the West to impose economic sanctions against Zimbabwe".

Britain, the United States and the European Union had imposed targeted sanctions on more than 100 top ruling party officials. In the extremely unlikely event Towungana wins the polls, he told the Herald he would ask established MPs from other political parties to form a government, as long as they were not "criminal".

He said: "I am flexible to work with anyone as long as you are not a criminal. We need to go back to the fundamentals if we are serious about turning around the fortunes of the economy."

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