Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change leader on Monday cautioned against imposing more sanctions on his country, instead urging immediate humanitarian aid.
Morgan Tsvangirai said that a September 15 power-sharing agreement with President Robert Mugabe could still yield results despite fundamental disagreements between the two sides.
But Tsvangirai said an offer for his party to head the Finance Ministry was a trap. Tsvangirai, who was in France for an international development conference, said his party should be given more power over internal security.
”The country is broke and therefore he wants us to go and clean up the mess by establishing financial rules, because he does not have financial relations with anybody,” Tsvangirai said.
The dispute over ministries is leaving Zimbabweans without leadership as their economy collapses.
Tsvangirai said that, instead of more sanctions, the country must have emergency humanitarian aid. He said millions of people need food and medicine to counter the spread of cholera.
The European Union has blacklisted 172 people linked to Mugabe’s government and four companies believed to financially support Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party. The EU also has frozen long-term aid projects in Zimbabwe and imposed an arms embargo.
Last week, the MDC said it will not join a unity government with Mugabe until all issues in power-sharing talks are resolved.
MDC vice-president Thokozani Khupe told reporters that a meeting of the party’s top leadership had resolved not to join a government until all outstanding issues in the talks were concluded. The Constitution also had to been changed to enact a unity government and to provide for the posts of prime minister and deputy prime minister, he said.
”Neither Robert Mugabe nor Zanu-PF has the legitimacy to form a government,” Khupe said. He said the MDC would campaign against any attempt by Mugabe to form a government now.
The MDC decision came after a meeting of the party’s executive on Friday to decide on whether to join a government with Mugabe’s Zanu-PF under a power-sharing deal that is in danger of crumbling.
Kupe said the party implored the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the continental body, the African Union, to step in and take action to ensure the Zimbabwean crisis is settled.
SADC countries have failed to persuade Zimbabwe’s parties, including a breakaway MDC faction, to bury their differences and move on to the daunting task of easing an economic crisis. — Sapa-AP, Reuters