MDC Ends Zimbabwe Cabinet Boycott

10 November 2009

The office of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says the Prime Minister and members of his Movement for Democratic Change will take part in a cabinet meeting Wednesday.

AFP Photo

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (2nd R) arrives at a Harare hotel for talks with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangerai to break an impasse on forming a unity government, 27 Oct., 2008

This will be the MDC's first participation in the coalition cabinet since Tsvangirai announced a boycott and accused President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF of persecution.

The Prime Minister's spokesman James Maridadi said that Tsvangirai will continue to voice his concerns about the lack of progress in the unity government.

"The prime minister will definitely talk about the issues of disengagement and his expectations on the way forward," Maridadi said.

During the recent meeting in Mozambique, the Southern African Development Community urged both parties to resolve outstanding issues in the next 15 days.

Maridadi praised efforts of the Troika countries of SADC to help resolve the rift within the unity government.

"The organ Troika gave a resolution on what should be done in Zimbabwe. They said the

prime minister must suspend his disengagement from ZANU-PF forthwith and that all the three political parties in Zimbabwe must start talking and that the outstanding issues of the Global Political Agreement should be implemented in full without further ado," Maridadi said.

He said South African President Jacob Zuma, who was appointed by SADC as facilitator, will soon be in Zimbabwe to monitor the progress of the coalition government.

ZANU-PF member and Minister for Youth Development, Savior Kasukuwere, said his party didn't stop working for ordinary Zimbabweans after the MDC cabinet boycott.

"As far as I am concerned we will continue to work for the people of Zimbabwe and we will continue the deliberation that we have always been doing. Even when our colleagues were not there the work of the country was still being handled by the ministers who were coming to attend cabinet and I think that is going to continue," Kasukuwere said.

The minister said ZANU-PF remains committed to alleviating the suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans -- despite local and international criticism.

"We are seized with much more serious matters of the state than trying to answer to criticism of who did what…we as a party and the party of the government what is critical to us is that we must deliver on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe and that the Global Political Agreement must be supported and we must continue," he said.