Mugabe to form new government 'as quickly as possible'

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Posted to the web: 10/11/2008 14:18:41
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe said Monday a new Zimbabwe government would be formed "as quickly as possible" despite his rival Morgan Tsvangirai's rejection of a regional compromise on a power-sharing deal.

"We will try to constitute (the new government) as quickly as possible," said Mugabe.

The veteran leader told reporters Monday he hoped the opposition leader would change his mind and accept a proposal by regional leaders to immediately form a government and share the disputed home affairs ministry.

"I hope they will" agree, the 84-year-old leader told reporters on state television as he boarded his airplane back to Harare, following the emergency heads of state meeting in Johannesburg on his country's worsening crisis.

Mugabe's lead negotiator Patrick Chinamasa said that Tsvangirai had been asked to submit names for ministers from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"We invited Mr Tsvangirai to submit names from his party. Whether he will respond positively or not only time will tell," Chinamasa told state television.

But Tsvangirai, who outpolled Mugabe in the first-round of the presidential election in March, but without a necessary majority to win outright, has already rejected the proposal by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

"SADC approached this summit without any concrete strategy and did not have the courage and the decency to look Mr Mugabe in the eyes and tell him that his position was wrong," Tsvangirai said after the talks in Johannesburg.

"This issue of co-sharing does not work. We have said so ourselves, we have rejected it, and that's the position," he told reporters.

"It is about power sharing, it is about equitable power sharing, it is about giving the responsibility to the party that won an election and has compromised its position to share a government with a party that lost," he said.

A unity government is seen as a life-line to save Zimbabwe from political and economic crisis, and foreign donors have warned that no rescue packages will reach the southern African state without a new government.

Under the unity accord signed on September 15 in Harare, Mugabe would remain as president while Tsvangirai would become prime minister.

But the deal has stagnated over the share out of key ministries, particularly the home affairs ministry which runs the police.
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