Zimbabwe’s prime minister has asked the United Nations, the European Union and four nations not to recognise six ambassadors the president appointed without consulting him, his party said on Tuesday.
The government’s power-sharing deal requires coalition partners to agree on all senior appointments. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party said the diplomatic postings were made “illegally and unconstitutionally” and should not be recognised.
Tsvangirai on Monday also asked Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and South Africa to reject the diplomatic credentials of incoming ambassadors.
Further blow
In another blow to the struggling coalition in the Southern African nation, President Robert Mugabe has unilaterally reappointed 10 provincial governors and five new judges, Tsvangirai’s party said.
The party said Tsvangirai wrote to Mugabe urging him to “return the country to constitutional rule” under the February 2009 power-sharing agreement brokered by regional leaders. Tsvangirai also informed Chief Justice Godfrey Chiyausiku that his group in the coalition did not accept as valid the posts of the five new judges.
In a review of coalition woes being circulated by his Movement for Democratic Change since the weekend, Tsvangirai said to his dismay and “utter disgust” Mugabe told him at their last regular meeting that he had reappointed his Zanu-PF party’s 10 provincial governors.
According to the terms of the coalition constitution, Tsvangirai’s party, which won the most votes in violence-ridden parliamentary elections in 2008, was slated to take over five of the governorships, Mugabe received four and a small former opposition splinter group got one.
Tsvangirai said Mugabe repeatedly vowed to regional mediators he never violated the nation’s Constitution.
“Sadly, he has done so not once, but time and time again,” said Tsvangirai.
‘Rank madness’
He said Zimbabwe faced a constitutional crisis and he would not “stand back any longer and just allow Mugabe and the Zanu-PF to defy the law, flaunt the Constitution and act as if they own this country”.
He rejected “one man rule” and his party would not recognise Mugabe appointees that include the long-disputed posts of the governor of the central bank and the chief law officer, the attorney general, both held by Mugabe loyalists.
Mugabe blames the stand-off on targeted Western economic sanctions against him and his party elite and insists the coalition can make no further progress until they are lifted.
“This is rank madness, and utterly nonsensical,” Tsvangirai said. “Mugabe and his colleagues brought these restrictive measures on themselves through the flagrant abuses of human rights and the economic disaster they inflicted” on Zimbabwe. — Sapa-AP