'Rebuilding Zimbabwe starts now'
Bathandwa Mbola
16 September 2008
The rebuilding of Zimbabwe starts today, the country's new prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, said on Monday after he and Robert Mugabe signed a landmark power-sharing agreement in Harare.
Addressing hundreds of party members, diplomats and African Union (AU) and SADC representatives at Harare's Rainbow Towers Hotel, Tsvangirai said the deal represented an African solution to African problems.
"The truth is that we are facing a crisis, and we will have to work together to resolve it," Tsvangirai said, adding that the rebuilding of the country had to start immediately.
Zimbabwe's economy has gradually collapsed over the past decade, and the country now has the world's highest inflation rate, chronic shortages of foreign currency and food, skyrocketing unemployment and widespread hunger.
"All we can do, and will do, is to work together to establish the environment where every Zimbabwean has the opportunity to contribute to solve the problems we face," Tsvangirai said.
The deal, mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, allows Robert Mugabe to extend his 28 years as Zimbabwe's leader, while making Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai prime minister and MDC fraction leader Arthur Mutambara Mutambara deputy prime minister.
The country's 31-member Cabinet will be split, with Mugabe's Zanu-PF holding 15 positions and the two factions of the MDC holding 16 seats.
The accord ends a six-month deadlock that followed elections on 29 March in which the MDC handed Zanu-PF its first ever electoral defeat. However, while Tsvangirai got the most votes in the presidential election, he did not win more than 50 percent needed to avoid a second round. Tsvangirai boycotted the runoff because of violent attacks on his supporters.
On Monday, however, both parties called for a united Zimbabwe, saying that whatever had happened in the past should be left there.
"I, the prime minister of Zimbabwe, call Zanu-PF and MDC to unite Zimbabwe," Tsvangirai said after signing the landmark agreement. "Divisions belong to the past."
He said there was an urgent need to unlock the doors to aid, medicine, food, and to bring doctors back into the country. "We need electricity, water, petrol for our vehicles; we need to access our cash from banks."
Tsvangirai described the agreement as a product of painful compromise, but added: "My hope for the future is greater than my grief for the needless suffering of the past year."
Deputy Prime Minister Mutumbara said the new government of national unity would have to make "some very painful decisions to drive this country forward".
"We must make sure the healing is cascaded right from the top to the villages ... our country has gone through a painful experience, and we have to heal from the top to the bottom."
The 84-year-old Mugabe said the MDC and Zanu-PF had to become allies. "People will want to see if what we promise is indeed what we strive to do ... We are committed, I am committed, let us all be committed."
Source: BuaNews
