ZIMBABWE’S MOVEMENT for Democratic Change (MDC) will boycott the transitional government until all outstanding issues blocking the powersharing deal’s implementation are addressed, prime minister and party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday.
In a move that has sent shock waves across the country, Mr Tsvangirai said the decision to stop working with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party was prompted by the jailing of senior MDC member Roy Bennett this week ahead of his terrorism trial, which is due to begin on Monday. Mr Bennett was released on bail late last night but said he was told the trial would still go ahead as planned. It is unclear if that will influence the MDC’s current stance.
Mr Bennett has denied trying to overthrow Mr Mugabe’s former government and claims the charges against him are trumped up. If convicted he faces a life sentence. “The present arrest and detention of our party treasurer, Roy Bennett, has brought home the fiction of the credibility and integrity of the transitional government,” Mr Tsvangirai said earlier yesterday in Harare.
“It has brought home the reality that we have an unreliable and unrepentant partner. It has brought home the self-evident fact that Zanu-PF sees us as a junior, fickle and unserious movement.”
Acknowledging that the boycott would paralyse government, Mr Tsvangirai said the resulting “constitutional crisis” could be resolved if “Zanu-PF and its leadership know that there is a price to pay for procrastination”.
Despite the magnitude of the MDC’s decision, Zanu-PF appeared unfazed. Spokesman Ephraim Masawi said: “If MDC wants to disengage . . . we don’t have a problem with that. We were having problems with MDC, working together. We have been trying but it was not easy.”
While the MDC, which controls half the ministries, will not engage in any political activity as part of the boycott, it is not “pulling out completely”, as it wants to re-engage if its demands are met by Zanu-PF. However, there will be no interaction with Zanu-PF government members or ministerial duties carried out.
Since the MDC and Zanu-PF entered into the powersharing deal last February, the former has accused the latter of failing to meet its obligations under the global political agreement.
The MDC says Mr Mugabe unilaterally appointed provincial governors, the central-bank governor and the attorney general, who are all loyal to Zanu-PF. It also accuses Zanu-PF of persecuting its legislators and activists, and of keeping state media biased against it.
“The lack of real movement on the key issues of democratisation of the media, the constitutional reform process, the land audit and the rule of law issues in the global polical agreement are issues that stick out like a sore thumb,” said Mr Tsvangirai.
The MDC’s decision to suspend its participation in government has sparked fears Zimbabwe may return to the chaos that gripped it when state-sponsored violence erupted across the country after last year’s disputed election.