The Zimbabwe president says he won’t meet any further demands of the former opposition in a coalition government until Western sanctions called for by his longtime opponents are abolished.
President Robert Mugabe spoke on Friday at a meeting of his Zanu-PF party’s 150 member policy-making committee. He said that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had failed to meet conditions of the 18-month-old coalition deal to have sanctions against Mugabe, his loyal elite and businesses aligned to his party removed.
Western nations have said Mugabe has not done enough on democratic reform to warrant the easing of travel, banking and other restrictions.
Outstanding disputes have crippled the work of the coalition.
Mugabe’s remarks were seen as a setback to regional mediation efforts to end the nation’s political crisis.
‘Retarding’ progress
Meanwhile, South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said in the National Assembly on Thursday that smart sanctions against Zimbabwe’s elite were “retarding” progress in the country.
Motlanthe, who had been asked about restrictions on shopping placed on Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF ministers, said the sanctions were affecting the free flow of capital and goods into the country.
“The government’s view is that the problems of Zimbabwe cannot be solely attributed to the tastes of ministers in Zimbabwe, but that the smart sanctions affect the free flow of capital and goods into Zimbabwe,” Motlanthe said.
It was the view of the governments of South Africa and Zimbabwe, including the Movement for Democratic Change party, that sanctions had to be lifted to place the country on the path to recovery, he said.
“These sanction retard progress in Zimbabwe. This is the view of our government.
“It is why SADC [the Southern African Development Community] and the AU [African Union] have called on the European Union, the government of the United Kingdom and the government of the United States to reconsider the position of these smart sanctions.” – Sapa-AP, Sapa