Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected the idea of forming a unity government with the party of President Robert Mugabe, whose re-election last year has been contested by Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
”We are not at all going to negotiate a government of national unity with Zanu-PF,” Tsvangirai was quoted as saying on Monday in the independent Daily News, referring to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front party.
”The MDC can only negotiate the issue of a transitional authority which will work towards resolving the issue of legitimacy in a process in which the people of Zimbabwe have a say through a free and fair election.”
Tsvangirai ran against Mugabe for the presidency in March last year in a vote which the opposition has decried as riddled with fraud and marred by intimidation and violence.
The MDC is contesting the result of the election -‒ which returned Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, to power — before the courts.
The MDC’s refusal to recognise Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s legitimately elected leader resulted in the breakdown of talks between Zanu-PF and the opposition party, aimed at pulling the southern African country out of its deep political, social and economic crises.
Inflation is running at more than 300% per annum, some 70% of the working population is unemployed, and around half the population of 11,6-million faces famine due to a severe drought and chaotic land reforms launched by Mugabe’s government.
Tsvangirai, meanwhile, faces two separate charges of treason, one arising from an alleged plot to ”eliminate” Mugabe prior to the 2002 election and a second brought early this month for allegedly calling for the violent ouster of the government after a week of MDC-organised protests against the regime.
Treason is punishable by death in Zimbabwe. – Sapa-AFP