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Repent before we talk,
Mugabe tells MDC
11/08/2003 13:26 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said on Monday the political opposition needed to "repent" before being allowed to work alongside his government to end the country's crises.
The president's comments, made at a ceremony to commemorate the country's independence war heroes, came ahead of the anticipated resumption of talks between his governing Zanu-PF party and the country's largest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Mugabe said: "Those who seek unity must not be enemies.
"Those who would go together with our enemies abroad cannot, at the same time, want to march alongside us as our partners in the nation-building efforts that are under way," he added, apparently referring to his earlier accusations that the MDC was a puppet of Britain.
"No, we say no to them, they must first repent.
"There is room for them to repent, there is room for them to say 'We were wrong yesterday, we shall not be wrong tomorrow'.
Persuaded to meet again
"We give them that chance. There cannot be unity with enemies of the people, enemies of the struggle and enemies of our independence," he said.
Church leaders last month launched efforts to persuade President Mugabe and the MDC to meet again in order to find ways of improving the country's dire economic straits and ending months of political stalemate.
Talks between the Mugabe camp and the MDC, headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, ended in deadlock last year after both sides managed only to draft an agenda of a common programme.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's economic situation has grown steadily worse, leaving more than half of its 11.6 million people facing hunger this year and at least 75 percent living below the poverty threshold.
Inflation and unemployment rates - at 365% and 70% respectively - are among some of the highest in the world.
Local currency is in short supply while an acute shortage of foreign exchange has seen the country run nearly dry of fuel, with electricty erratic at best.
Mugabe has denied his government has run the country down, assigning partial blame to sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States in protest at last year's elections that kept him in power.
- AFP
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