PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe said yesterday the life of the inclusive government would come to an end on June 29, vowing that no negotiation for an extension could be entertained by Zanu PF.
REPORT BY BY NDAMU SANDU
The move is set to draw sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who has been on a regional sojourn to press African leaders to insist on the completion of reforms before the holding of the make-or-break Zimbabwean elections.
Addressing the 92nd Ordinary Session of the Zanu PF’s central committee at the party’s headquarters in Harare, Mugabe said the Global Political Agreement (GPA) would expire on June 29.
“The clock is ticking. This is May and by the end of June, whether anyone likes it or not, nguva inenge yakwana [time will be ripe].
The sun will set for the creature called global [political] agreement,” Mugabe said to thunderous applause from delegates.
Zanu PF has been insisting that elections should be held on or before June 29 when the life of the current Parliament expires.
The National Constitutional Assembly has also supported the move, arguing that it would be illegal to have the executive running the country without Parliament whose life automatically ends in June.
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The two MDC formations say elections would be disputed without first completing reforms espoused in the GPA. Some of the reforms include making the security sector professional and reforming the media, among others.
Some security chiefs have been making political statements insisting they would not salute Tsvangirai in the event that he wins elections, a move MDC-T said was tantamount to a coup.
Tsvangirai has been on the diplomatic offensive appraising regional leaders on the situation obtaining on the ground.
In reference to Tsvangirai’s regional sojourns, Mugabe said one does not have to run to African and European countries “to prevent the day when the sun sets on the 29th of June”.
He said on that day, the GPA would die a natural death and “we will not negotiate another, never, ever”.
Mugabe said yesterday’s central committee meeting might be the last before elections, though there could be another one if the need arose to gauge the party’s preparedness for elections.
He said any party candidate who plans violence would be “rewarded” through violence “because violence begets violence”.
Mugabe said Parliament would this week debate the draft Constitution and expressed the hope MPs would okay it.
He said the draft was “a political draft that still requires some changes”.
Mugabe said if the draft was not passed “we will go back to the Lancaster which is there” and has been used in the past 32 years.
