Zimbabwe’s main opposition party on Monday denied reports in the British press that it was involved in a plot to exile President Robert Mugabe and allow for a government of national unity to be formed.
The Times of London reported on Monday that a scheme was being hatched by senior officials in Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu-PF) party which would guarantee Mugabe immunity from prosecution in return for leaving the country for refuge abroad.
”That story is not true, it’s mere speculation,” Paul Temba Nyathi, representative for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told AFP.
The paper cited MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as saying his party was ready to allow Mugabe to receive immunity if the long-time leader of Zimbabwe — re-elected to another six-year term in March last year after 22 years in power — stands down. But both Nyathi and Tsvangirai’s representative, William Bango, said the British daily was probably referring to a claim made last month by Tsvangirai that there were diplomatic efforts afoot to get him to meet with Mugabe.
He claimed then that Britain, South Africa and the ruling party were working behind the scenes to get him to the negotiating table with Mugabe to discuss the country’s many crises.
Zimbabwe’s economy has nosedived, with severe shortages of foreign currency and triple-digit inflation. The country is also in the grips of crippling food shortages which threaten more than two-thirds of the population of more than 11 million with famine.
The shortages are mainly attributed to a drought which has ravaged southern Africa, but critics also blame Mugabe’s controversial land reforms, which have seen white-owned commercial farms seized for redistribution to landless blacks, for worsening the food crisis.
Nyathi said there has been no easing of relations between his party and Zanu-PF.
”We as a party are exactly where we were when the talks between MDC and Zanu-PF broke down” in May last year, he said. Those talks were scuppered after the opposition launched a legal challenge to Mugabe’s re-election.
Last year’s talks, brokered by Nigeria and South Africa, were aimed at finding a way out of the post-election political impasse between the two parties.
Tsvangirai, who lost to Mugabe in the March election, has rejected the outcome of that vote, alleging fraud and malpractice, and called for fresh polls.
On Monday Zanu-PF promised to issue a statement in reaction to the alleged plot to exile Mugabe. – Sapa-AFP