MDC-T leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday exposed his coalition government’s key partner President Robert Mugabe’s alleged doublespeak, saying the Zanu PF leader always acted contrary to what they would have agreed in their Monday meetings.
Report by John Nyashanu
Addressing party members at the launch of the MDC-T’s policy conference in Harare, Tsvangirai said after reaching agreement on key policy issues, Mugabe always turned around and gave contrary instructions to his ministers, thereby scuttling government’s work programmes.
“We sit down as Principals, we agree, but sometimes as you turn your back, the same contradictory instructions go to Zanu PF ministers not to implement what we would have agreed,” said Tsvangirai.
Some of the issues which Mugabe and the Premier reportedly agreed on include media reforms and an election roadmap with timelines which Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa and Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric Matinenga were tasked to come up with.
However, allegations are that Chinamasa has been elusive, thereby scuttling the process. Tsvangirai said the country’s economic performance, which had taken a positive turn at the consummation of the unity government four years ago, took a rapid decline as soon as Mugabe went into election mode.
“We can’t have progress, we can’t have cohesion in government when there are some people running parallel programmes . . . As soon as Mugabe started election talk, the whole policy cohesion, the whole government work plan was undermined,” he said.
Efforts to get a comment from President Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba were unsuccessful as his mobile phone went unanswered. The MDC-T event was a no-holds-barred occasion as the party’s allies, led by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, came out guns blazing, taking the leadership to task for allegedly letting down workers. “A minister who speaks to please investors at the expense of labour is not pro-people . . . How do you defend an MDC (T) minister who refuses to talk to workers?” said ZCTU secretary-general Japhet Moyo, as he took a swipe at Finance minister Tendai Biti and his Public Service counterpart Lucia Matibenga.
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In its policy document, the MDC-T pledges several measures to rescue the country politically and socio-economically.
These include improving livelihoods of the rural folk by providing security of ownership for their land, infrastructure such as roads piped water and electricity. The party also pledges to support micro enterprises by attracting foreign direct investment and link them with the sector.
