President Robert Mugabe is describing the split in Zimbabwe’s governing coalition as a ”non-event”, and says his party will not bow to pressure.
Mugabe’s comments to state television on Friday are his first since Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said last week that he was temporarily withdrawing from the coalition. The former opposition leader has complained about a lack of cooperation by Mugabe and his party.
Mugabe suggested that Tsvangirai’s party was being led by emotions and wanted ”complete executive authority”. That cannot be allowed, he told state TV on his return from a summit of African
leaders in Uganda.
The 84-year-old leader has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai on Friday urged Angola’s
president to use his influence in the region to rescue Harare’s unity government.
”What I said to him was, they have to ensure that this baby is nursed until it has grown, and that this agreement is protected because it’s also the credibility of SADC which is at stake,” said Tsvangirai after meeting with President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos in Luanda.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is chaired by Mozambique’s Armando Guebuza.
Tsvangirai’s visit to Angola follows a series of meetings with other Southern African leaders, from whom he is seeking support after cutting ties with the power sharing government.
”President Dos Santos is one of the senior leaders in the region, he together with others was instrumental in crafting this political dispensation,” said Tsvangirai.
He stressed that his party had not withdrawn from the government and referred to his disengagement as a ”temporary setback”.
”The problems we are facing are not unique,” he said, adding that they are teething problems of transition.
Since he announced the decision to disengage from the fragile unity accord with Mugabe, Tsvangirai has been on a diplomatic mission to appeal for regional mediation in the stand-off with his partner.
President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo are some of the leaders he has met.
”President Dos Santos and President Kabila have also gone through the transition which was difficult. I see no reason why their experience should not be shared with Zimbabwe in order to move the country forward,” he said.
Angola and Zimbabwe are seen as close allies and this week a delegation from Dos Santos’ ruling MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) has been in Harare meeting Mugabe and other senior Zanu-PF figures. – Sapa-AP, AFP