PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has asked the United Nations, the European Union and four nations not to recognise six ambassadors President Robert Mugabe appointed without consulting him, his party said Tuesday.
The government's power-sharing deal requires Mugabe to "consult" coalition partners -- Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara -- on all senior appointments. Tsvangirai's party said the diplomatic postings were made "illegally and unconstitutionally" and should not be recognised.
Tsvangirai on Monday also asked Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and South Africa to reject the diplomatic credentials of incoming ambassadors.
In another blow to the struggling coalition in the southern African nation, President Mugabe has unilaterally reappointed 10 provincial governors and five new judges, Tsvangirai's party said.
The party said Tsvangirai wrote to Mugabe urging him to "return the country to constitutional rule" under the February 2009 power sharing agreement brokered by regional leaders. Tsvangirai also informed Chief Justice Godfrey Chiyausiku that his group in the coalition did not accept as valid the posts of the five new judges.
Schedule 8 Article 20.7 of the constitution states that, “the parties agree that with respect to occupants of senior government positions, such as permanent secretaries and the ambassadors, the leadership in government, comprising the President, the Vice Presidents, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister will consult and agree on such prior to their appointments”.
Constitutional lawyer Lovemore Madhuku has suggested the wording of the constitution leaves Mugabe room to act unilaterally.
Madhuku said: "Those people who drafted the GPA [Global Political Agreement] are good English speakers and they know that there is a difference between the word consultation and the word agreement. All lawyers know that where you want agreement, you would say 'either with the approval of or with the consent of.' As currently defined, the clause gives Mugabe the ultimate power to disregard Tsvangirai's views."
In a review of coalition woes being circulated by his Movement for Democratic Change since the weekend, Tsvangirai said to his dismay and "utter disgust" Mugabe told him at their last regular meeting that he had reappointed his Zanu PF party's 10 provincial governors.
According to the terms of an agreement between Mugabe's Zanu PF and the two MDC groups, Tsvangirai's MDC, which won the most votes in violence-ridden parliamentary elections in 2008, was slated to take over five of the governorships, Zanu PF four and tyhe Mutambara MDC one.
Tsvangirai said Mugabe repeatedly vowed to regional mediators he never violated the nation's constitution.
"Sadly, he has done so not once, but time and time again," said Tsvangirai.
He said Zimbabwe faced a constitutional crisis and he would not "stand back any longer and just allow Mugabe and Zanu PF to defy the law, flaunt the constitution and act as if they own this country."
He rejected "one man rule" and his party would not recognise Mugabe appointees that include the long-disputed posts of the governor of the central bank and the chief law officer, and the attorney general, both held by Mugabe loyalists.
Mugabe blames the standoff on targeted Western economic sanctions against him and his party elite and insists the coalition can make no further progress until they are lifted.
"This is rank madness, and utterly nonsensical," Tsvangirai said. "Mugabe and his colleagues brought these restrictive measures on themselves through the flagrant abuses of human rights and the economic disaster they inflicted" on Zimbabwe.