Opposition slates Mugabe's plans
Zimbabwe's opposition said yesterday it will not join any new government with President Robert Mugabe until power-sharing talks are concluded, after the 84-year-old declared he would name his own cabinet.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change described Mugabe's intention to form a government regardless of the opposition as "a declaration of war against the people".
Mugabe's move leaves the power-sharing negotiations -- stalled for the past two weeks -- in tatters, and outlines the scale of the task facing mediator Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, to get them back on track.
Mugabe spoke at a lunch Tuesday after the opening of parliament, when he was still apparently rattled by the jeers with which the opposition drowned out his ceremonial opening speech.
"We shall soon be setting up a government. The MDC does not want to come in apparently," the government newspaper, The Herald, quoted him as saying.
The comments drew an angry response from the both factions of the opposition.
"It's very clear that if he announces the new cabinet it's a declaration of war against the people. You can't just have a cabinet without a mandate," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP.
Chamisa accused Mugabe of trying to "hijack the leadership" of Zimbabwe and said the veteran leader was trying to ride roughshod over his political opponents.
"He should wait for the conclusion of the dialogue together with the MDC, and Mr Tsvangirai, on the way forward. Otherwise what he is doing is a recipe for disaster."
Chamisa said the talks remained stalled and appealed to Mbeki and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which appointed him mediator to urgently intervene as Zimbabwe was "sliding and gliding into anarchy".
Edwin Mushoriwa, spokesman for the smaller MDC faction with whom Mugabe's ZANU-PF party could conceivably form a majority in parliament, said it would not join a Mugabe government.
On Wednesday, police were still holding five MDC deputies in custody following their arrest this week, and a bid by the opposition's number two Tendai Biti to dismiss treason charges brought ahead of the presidential run-off vote in June, was postponed.
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