It takes 2 to tango: Tsvangirai flies in to meet Mugabe


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Morgan Tsvangirai will on Friday return to Zimbabwe for the first time in more than two months in a bid to resolve the political impasse surrounding the formation of a government of national unity.

By Richard Lapper in Johannesburg

Morgan Tsvangirai will on Friday return to Zimbabwe for the first time in more than two months in a bid to resolve the political impasse surrounding the formation of a government of national unity.

The leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said he was planning to meet President Robert Mugabe, in talks brokered by Kgalema Motlanthe, the South African president.

“I still believe that a political agreement offers the best means of preventing Zimbabwe from becoming a failed state,” Mr Tsvangirai told journalists.

Zimbabwe’s government and opposition agreed to form a coalition four months ago, after the MDC earlier last year won a first round of elections but then withdrew from a second round after extensive violence against its activists.

But the reluctance of the governing Zanu-PF to concede control of home affairs – that control the police force – and other key ministries has blocked the arrangement coming to fruition.

“Sadly, the Zanu-PF regime has frustrated every effort to make the deal work,” said Mr Tsvangirai, who will meet with fellow members of the MDC national executive council on Sunday. “At the end of the day, it takes two to tango.”

Mr Tsvangirai said that the government continued to detain MDC activists and organisers for non-governmental organisations and the whereabouts of 11 MDC members remained unknown.

Until three weeks ago the authorities in addition denied a passport to Mr Tsvangirai – who is prime minister designate – restricting his ability to travel and contributing to his decision to stay outside Zimbabwe. Without a government Zimbabwe’s economic and humanitarian crisis has deteriorated.

Basic services such as water, health care and education have collapsed, there is widespread hunger and more than 2,000 people have died from a cholera epidemic.

The mediation efforts of South Africa and the 14 countries of the Southern Africa Development Community have been attacked by international critics as being too soft on Mr Mugabe.

But Mr Tsvangirai backed South African diplomacy, arguing that, contrary to the position of its critics such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the country had “not lost moral ground”. And he argued that Mr Mugabe “was part of the solution, as well as part of the problem”.

Financial Times

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