The swearing in of the Prime Minister and his Deputies yesterday does not translate to automatic aid for the Southern African country and Zimbabweans who thronged Glamis Stadium to celebrate with Morgan Tsvangirai will have to wait sometime before he can deliver his promises.
While congratulating the new Prime Minister, the United States yesterday said, that it is waiting to see evidence of true power sharing and effective governance before offering additional development assistance or easing its targeted sanctions against President Mugabe and his key supporters.
Acting State Department spokesman, Robert Wood, said February 11 that the United States is reserving judgment on the new government. “We need to see evidence of good governance and particularly real, true power sharing on the part of Robert Mugabe before we are going to make any kind of commitment,” he said.
While celebrating his swearing in, Prime Minister Tsvangirai promised to pay civil servants in foreign currency starting at the end of this month. “If we are to successfully address our nation’s humanitarian crisis, we must first address the urgent plight of our civil servants”
“As Prime Minister, I make this commitment that, as from the end of this month, our professionals in the civil service, every health worker, teacher, soldier and policeman will receive their pay in foreign currency until we are able to stabilise the economy,” PM Tsvangirai told supporters at Glamis Stadium.
However, Wood insisted that along with good governance, the Barack Obama administration wants to see “a government that truly reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people.”
The Obama administration has extended its congratulations to Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai for becoming the country’s prime minister, but says that while welcoming Tsvangirai’s inclusion in the government as prime minister and acknowledging that he would need international help to confront Zimbabwe’s food, health and economic crises.
According to Wood, the United States “will not consider providing additional development assistance or even easing sanctions until we see effective governance in the country … That’s going to be key,” that is, the determinant factor to what the United States can do.
