Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Tsvangirai Becomes Premier
2009-02-11 14:44:40.896 GMT
By Brian Latham
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister, opening the way for the establishment of a coalition government with President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party.
Tsvangirai’s appointment today may end a political crisis that erupted after disputed elections in March. After winning the most votes in the presidential poll, Tsvangirai, 57, boycotted a June runoff because of violence against his supporters, enabling Mugabe, 84, to extend his 29-year rule.
“From today, as your prime minister, I say the culture of impunity over violence and human rights violations, that must end today,” Tsvangirai said at a rally in Harare, the capital.
“The economic collapse that led millions of our brightest people to leave, that must end today.”
The coalition government between Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and the MDC, which split into two factions in 2005, will try to win international support to lift Zimbabwe out of a its worst-ever economic crisis. Zimbabwe is in the grips of a decade-long recession and has the world’s highest inflation rate, at 231 million percent last July, the last time the government provided an official estimate.
Solution
“This particular political solution leaves Mugabe and Zanu- PF firmly in the picture and it remains unclear whether Western nations and donors will accept that,” economist John Robertson said yesterday by phone from Harare. “It is likely they’ll balk at assisting Zimbabwe until they are satisfied that economic and civil liberties aren’t still being stifled.”
While Zimbabwe has the world’s second-biggest reserves of platinum after South Africa, concerns over security of tenure and local ownership laws have slowed the development of mines by Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. Output of gold, chrome and nickel have plunged in recent years.
Tsvangirai, the eldest son of a bricklayer, became involved in labor union activities while working in an Anglo American Plc nickel mine in Bindura, northeast of Harare. He later rose to lead the mineworkers’ union and was secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
He established the MDC in 1999 and helped to defeat a referendum in 2000 that would have increased Mugabe’s powers.
Tsvangirai has been charged with treason twice and in 2007 was beaten after an arrest that left him with a swollen eye and gashes on his head.
Shortages
Zimbabwe is facing shortages of food, fuel and other basic commodities. At least 6.9 million Zimbabweans, or more than half of the population, need emergency food rations, according to the UN’s World Food Programme. A quarter of the population has fled the country.
Deaths from a cholera outbreak have risen to 3,467 while
70,643 people have been infected with the disease, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Yesterday on its Web site.
At least 94 percent of Zimbabwe’s rural schools are closed and children are facing a national disaster, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in a report yesterday.
The cabinet, which will include 15 members from Zanu-PF, 14 from Tsvangirai’s MDC and three from an MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, is scheduled to be sworn in on Feb. 13. Mutambara and MDC Vice President Thokozani Kuphe are to serve as Tsvangirai’s deputy prime ministers.
Finance Minister
Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general who until last week was facing treason charges, will become finance minister, the MDC said yesterday. Biti, 42, is a lawyer.
Giles Mutseyekwa, MDC’s defense spokesman and a former military officer, will co-chair the Home Affairs Ministry, which supervises the police force. Mugabe must name his appointee to share control of the ministry by Feb. 13.
A five-month impasse over the coalition government was broken last month when the 15-nation Southern African Development Community mediated an agreement.
Mugabe, in return for winning SADC support to remain president, agreed to make concessions to the opposition, two members of Zanu-PF’s politburo, who declined to be identified, said yesterday.
The concessions included allowing the MDC to appoint provincial governors, easing restrictive media laws, and legalizing a security council proposed by the opposition to oversee the police, military and intelligence agencies.
The agreement sets up joint control of the disputed home affairs ministry, which supervises the police.
Disputes between Zanu-PF and the MDC remain.
At least 42 MDC supporters are still being detained by the security forces, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said yesterday.
“There can be no turning back on the political agreement, knowing that it is not a perfect agreement, but a workable one,” Tsvangirai said at today’s rally. “We walked a dry road to get this far and are opening a new chapter for our country.” |
