MDC - Robert Mugabe - Zimbabwe

Mugabe says opposition refuses to join government

Wednesday 27 August 2008

President Robert Mugabe indicated he would form a government soon but said the opposition did not want to be a part of it. This comes after power-sharing talks dragged out over the last month with no results.

HARARE - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will form a
new government soon but he says the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change does not want to join, state
media reported on Wednesday.
 

Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC have failed to reach
agreement in over one month of post-election power-sharing
negotiations aimed at ending a political crisis that has
worsened Zimbabwe's devastating economic decline.
 

"We shall soon be setting up a government. The MDC does not
want to come in apparently," state-owned newspaper The Herald
quoted Mugabe as telling government officials on Tuesday after
opening parliament.
 

Mugabe, who was booed and jeered by opposition members when
he opened the assembly, has said he is still hopeful of
agreement in the power-sharing talks.
 

The MDC said it remained committed to talks but the party
insisted on an inclusive government.
 

"We remain committed to a dialogue process that is going to
produce an acceptable outcome for all the players, an inclusive
government. We are against this unilateralism and arrogance,"
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
 

New parliament speaker Lovemore Moyo, from the MDC, said
talks were continuing. He said the heckling of Mugabe in
parliament was regrettable but reflected MDC frustrations over
the political deadlock in the country.
 

ECONOMIC HARDSHIPS
 

Mugabe was re-elected unopposed in a June vote boycotted by
Tsvangirai because of violence and condemned around the world.
 

Political commentator Lovemore Madhuku, head of Zimbabwe's
National Constitutional Assembly pressure group, said both sides
were now hardening their positions and the power struggle was
getting more complex.
 

"He (Mugabe) could go ahead as he says and form a new
government, but he will be governing without the control of
parliament," Madhuku said.
 

"The MDC will obviously try to make it difficult for
Mugabe's government by, for instance, refusing to approve the
budget. But in our current set-up, parliament has limited
influence in governance."
 

Regional heads of state in the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) have failed to push the parties into a deal.
Analysts say Mugabe seeks to convince the group that Tsvangirai
is holding up progress by insisting on executive powers.
 

"He (Mugabe) may simply decide to go ahead without them (the
MDC). He will obviously tell other SADC governments that he has
been reasonable and offering them (MDC) posts within his
government," said Professor Steven Friedman, political analyst
at the University of Johannesburg.
 

"But I think that at least some SADC countries will see
through that and will say that this is not a real settlement."
 

Economic recovery is also likely to depend on convincing
Western countries that are heavily critical of Mugabe.
 

The economic price of the deadlock is rising by the day.
 

Severe food, fuel and foreign currency shortages are
worsening. The hardships, which also include the world's highest
annual inflation rate of over 11 million percent, has already
driven millions of Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries.
 

Mugabe criticised his former cabinet strongly.
 

"The Cabinet that I had was the worst in history. They
(only) look at themselves, they are unreliable, but not all of
them. The people are suffering...," The Herald quoted him on
Wednesday as saying.
 

The opposition party said three of its deputies were
arrested at parliament on Tuesday on what it called trumped-up
political violence charges. MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti's
treason case was on Wednesday postponed to Nov. 17, the party
said in a statement.

Special report on elections in Zimbabwe