Zimbabwe: Cracks grow in Coalition gov`t

  1. Posted on Thursday 15 October 2009 - 05:50
    conrad
    Image of conrad
    Conrad Dube Mwanawashe, AfricaNews reporter in Harare, Zimbabwe
    Zimbabwe's Coalition Government is on the brink of collapse as serious fissures stalked by the re-arrest of Roy Bennett - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's top aide. Tsvangirai cancelled a Council of Ministers meeting in protest over President Mugabe's refusal to meet him to resolve the matter.
    Roy Bennet
    All moves by Tsvangirai to meet Mugabe, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Attorney General Johannes Tomana failed.

    The spokesperson of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) James Maridadi confirmed that the minister’s meeting - which Tsvangirai chairs and sits on Thursdays - had been suspended because “the Prime Minister (Tsvangirai) will be meeting the top MDC leadership to consider Senator Roy Bennett’s issue”.

    “Council of ministers has been cancelled. The Prime Minister has suspended his coming to the office until the issue of Senator Bennett is resolved. He wants that matter resolved immediately,” said Maridadi. He said Tsvangirai’s attempts to meet Mugabe were frustrated last night.

    The MDC Treasurer-General and Deputy Agriculture Minister-designate Bennett was sent to prison for the second time this year on the same charges after the State successfully applied to indict him in the High Court.

    Serious Attack

    The MDC party said Bennett’s indictment and subsequent detention is “yet another serious attack on the credibility of the inclusive government”.

    “The MDC views this as an act of machination by Zanu PF and its sulking cabal planted in various state institutions aimed at persecuting not prosecution. As a party, we know that Bennett is innocent. The banditry charges are trumped-up and they poison the letter and spirit of the inclusive government and the Global Political Agreement,” the MDC said in a statement.

    “This latest action is deliberately provocative, unnecessary and motivated by hatred of a personality. The MDC takes this matter as a serious attack on the integrity and honesty of the party; it is not acceptable and will not be taken lightly,” the party said.

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