Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party on Wednesday applauded calls by regional leaders for partners in Zimbabwe’s unity government to iron out their differences within a month.
Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general Tendai Biti said the MDC was “reasonably pleased” with this week’s summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which called on Tuesday for Zimbabwe’s strained power-sharing government to resolve outstanding issues within a month.
“I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that if SADC and the people of Zimbabwe are able to implement the recommendations of the facilitator and are able to stay within the parameters of the broad road map … we can achieve the transformation of the transition to legitimacy,” Biti told a news conference in the capital, Harare.
“With some kind of caution we are reasonably pleased with the outcome of the summit,” he said.
The statement came after heads of state met for SADC’s annual summit in Windhoek, Namibia.
SADC facilitated the formation of a unity government between Mugabe and long-time rival Tsvangirai in 2009 in the aftermath of a bloody presidential run-off election.
The work of the power-sharing government has been hampered by haggling over the allocation of key posts and Mugabe’s unilateral appointments of Attorney General Johannes Tomana and central bank Governor Gideon Gono.
No decisive action
Regional leaders avoided taking decisive action on Zimbabwe at the summit.
They delayed making a decision on Zimbabwe’s defiance of verdicts by a regional court that ruled in favour of white farmers whose properties were seized under President Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reforms.
The leaders gave themselves six months to review a stand-off between Harare and the SADC tribunal.
They also raised the issue of organising fresh elections in Zimbabwe, but without giving dates.
Biti said Wednesday the question of elections could not be rushed.
“Let’s not treat elections mechanically,” he said. “Elections are a process. There are so many things that have to be done before the elections and after the elections.” — Sapa-AFP