HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday urged southern African leaders to help resolve a deadlock over the appointments of the country’s bank chief and attorney general.
‘The outstanding issues, which have been referred to SADC (Southern African Development Community), must be resolved so that confidence in the global political agreement is not undermined,’ Tsvangirai said as he opened the national conference of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Two weeks ago the parties of Tsvangirai and veteran leader Robert Mugabe, who formed a power-sharing government in February to end a ruinous political standoff, clashed over Mugabe’s decision to keep Gideon Gono as central bank chief and Johannes Tomana as the attorney general.
Gono, who has been widely criticised for failing to stop the Zimbabwean economy’s freefall and slide into world record inflation, is a Mugabe ally. Tomana has declared his allegiance to Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.
The matter was referred to the SADC following the dispute.
Tsvangirai said though the new government had brought relief to Zimbabweans who had endured years of economic crisis and political tensions, there was a lot of ground yet to be covered.
‘In the 107 days since the formation of the inclusive government, the MDC within that government, has been instrumental in stabilising our economy and bringing it back from the brink of a truly national disaster,’ Tsvangirai said.
‘In fact, we have been able to bring our rate of inflation from a world-record breaking rate of 500 billion per cent to minus three percent as at the end of March.
‘While we must recognise the positive difference that our entry into government has brought to the people of Zimbabwe, we must also admit the fact that we have not moved as far or as fast with these positive changes as the peole demand.’
The new government also sought to ease political tensions in the wake of contentious presidential polls last year, which Mugabe won by default after Tsvangirai pulled out of the deciding second round due to security fears.
The work of the power-sharing government has been stalled by disagreements among the parties over appointments to key posts; a resumption of Mugabe’s controversial policy of farm invasions; and a delay in the swearing-in of top MDC official Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister. -Nampa-AFP
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