Tsvangirai snubs Mugabe over Aide's 'show trial'

Zimbabwe’s prime minister is to boycott the country’s troubled unity government over the “persecution” of a top aide being tried on trumped up coup charges.

Long-time opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said today: “We are not really pulling out officially,” but that his party would not attend Cabinet meetings or engage in other executive work with President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.

Mr Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change party would continue parliamentary activities.

He said the freeze will continue until there was a resolution of the dispute over Roy Bennett.

Mr Bennett is being tried on charges linked to long-discredited allegations that his party, the MDC, plotted President Mugabe’s violent overthrow.

Today’s move demonstrates deep unhappiness within the MDC with the coalition. But Mr Tsvangirai has repeatedly said he sees the coalition as the only way to ensure Zimbabwe’s future, and he made that clear again by stopping short of bringing down the government by pulling out altogether.

ZANU-PF’s reaction underlined tensions within the coalition.

“If MDC wants to disengage ... we don’t have a problem with that,” said a party spokesman. “We were having problems with MDC, working together. We have been trying but it was not easy.”

Mr Tsvangirai and Mugabe entered the unity government in February after two violence-plagued elections left the country at a political standstill and in economic ruin.

“Until confidence has been restored we can’t continue to pretend that everything is well,” Mr Tsvangirai said. “It is our right to disengage from ZANU-PF.”

Mr Bennett, who was ordered back to jail earlier this week after seven months on bail, is due to stand trial on Monday.

Mr Tsvangirai had nominated him as deputy agriculture minister in the coalition. He was arrested the day the Cabinet was sworn in February and charged with weapons violations. He denies the charges against him.