Zimbabwe opposition decides to join government
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Zimbabwe's opposition MDC agreed today to join a unity government with President Robert Mugabe, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said.
Tsvangirai made the announcement after a meeting of the Movement for Democratic Change's decision-making National Council.
"We are going into this government. That is what the council has decided," Tsvangirai, set to become prime minister, told reporters.
The decision should put into effect a long stalled power-sharing deal designed to rescue Zimbabwe from its deepening economic and humanitarian crisis.
With the local currency almost worthless and the world's highest inflation rate, the government announced yesterday it would let Zimbabweans use foreign currency, a sign of growing desperation.
Over half the population is in need of food aid.
Regional leaders had piled pressure on both sides to implement the power-sharing deal they signed in September and South African President Kgalema Motlanthe said today his country was ready to help rebuild Zimbabwe once that happened.
"This stage is really critical in terms of achieving political stability and the first step towards the economic recovery of that country," Motlanthe told Reuters at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.
The 15 September power-sharing agreement has been stalled by a dispute over control of key cabinet positions. Tsvangirai's party feared being sidelined in a joint administration.
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Comments
Since walking out of power-sharing talks, on the dubious grounds of getting side-lined by Mr. Mugabe in a government of national unity, nothing substantive appears to have changed on the ground, except, of course, the exponentially worsening Zimbabwean economy and the apocalyptic cholera epidemic. So why now this about face?