Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai launched a scathing attack on President Robert Mugabe’s rule of Zimbabwe on Friday, saying he had transformed a country rich in natural resources into a ”state of despair”.
In a self-styled state of the nation address to lawmakers from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, Tsvangirai also vowed there would be no amnesty for perpetrators of political violence if he takes power from Mugabe at a run-off election due in four weeks.
”The state of our nation is a state of despair,” said Tsvangirai, who is looking to end Mugabe’s 28-year rule at the ballot box on June 27.
”We have the world’s highest inflation rate, 80% unemployment, an education sector that has plummeted from one of the best to one of the worst.”
Tsvangirai said there could be no justification for the mess in a country that was regarded as a post-colonial role model in the first decade and a half after independence from Britain in 1980.
”We are a rich country with natural resources. We have the resources to attract foreign investors,” said Tsvangirai.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been in meltdown since the start of the decade, when Mugabe embarked on a controversial land-reform programme that saw thousands of white-owned farms expropriated by the state.
A spiralling inflation rate, officially put at 165 000% but thought to be many times higher, has frightened off investors, as has a new Bill that requires locals to own a 51% stake in all firms operating in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe has in turn blamed the country’s problems on a limited programme of sanctions imposed by the West after he allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election.
Tsvangirai fell just short of an outright majority in a first round of voting on March 29 needed to avoid a run-off.
But his MDC wrested control of Parliament from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF in a simultaneous legislative poll.
The period since then has been marked by a steady rise in political violence, which the MDC says has seen more than 50 of its supporters killed by pro-Mugabe militias.
”The violence that is taking place must stop. There will be no tolerance or amnesty for those who torture or injure or kill other citizens,” said Tsvangirai.
”Zimbabweans who are attacking other Zimbabweans must cease and desist now.”
The 84-year-old Mugabe has in turn accused the MDC of ”terrorising” his supporters, although the UN says the opposition has borne the brunt of the attacks. — Sapa-AFP