Tsvangirai pulls out temporarily from coalition government

ZIMBABWE’S prime minister yesterday withdrew, at least temporarily, from a coalition government with hard-line President Robert Mugabe, setting back already troubled efforts to end Zimbabwe’s political and economic crises and international isolation.

Morgan Tsvangirai said he is withdrawing because of “persecution” of a top aide, Roy Bennett, the prime minister’s nominee for deputy agriculture minister. Bennett is being tried on charges linked to long-discredited allegations that Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party plotted Mugabe’s violent overthrow.

“We are not really pulling out officially,” Tsvangirai said, but made clear his party members would not attend Cabinet meetings or engage in other executive work with Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would continue parliament activities.

Yesterday’s move demonstrates unhappiness within the MDC with the coalition. But Tsvangirai has said he sees the coalition as the only way to ensure Zimbabwe’s future, and he underscored that view by stopping short of bringing down the government by pulling out.