Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he was never consulted about forming an inclusive government and accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration of being “bent on thriving on the same lies, dishonesty and stinginess with objective facts as the old Mugabe regime”.
This follows a statement by one of Mnangagwa’s new men Christopher Mutsvangwa who said Mnangagwa had engaged Tsvangirai with the intention of creating an inclusive cabinet with MDC ministers but the MDC leader, driven purely by selfish interest, had given the precondition that he ought to be included in the presidium of the new administration.
Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said noting could be further from the truth.
“The lies about president Tsvangirai do not come as a surprise. This whole government appears built upon a quicksand of falsehoods and mistruths. That Mutsvangwa himself barely lasted 24 hours as a cabinet minister speaks to the ineptitude of this so called new dawn of our time,” he said.
“For the record president Tsvangirai was never consulted. He only exchanged pleasantries with President Mnangagwa when he congratulated him during their brief exchange at the swearing-in ceremony at the National Sports stadium on 24 November 2017.
“President Tsvangirai cannot be against an inclusive set-up when it was him who first broached the need for such an arrangement as it was only an agreed transitional set up that could soft-land the national crisis and institute reforms for a free, fair and credible election next year.
“As long as there had been formal discussions and an agreed mandate of that inclusive set-up, president Tsvangirai and the MDC had already said they are amenable to such an arrangement but no one formally approached him. What we have always been against is to be an appendage of a factional ZANU-PF government that is not prioritising reforms ahead of the next election as well as the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans.
“The whole matter has never been about president Tsvangirai and his personal position in that inclusive set up. It has never been about him and in any case he was never approached by anyone, whether formally or informally.”
Full statement:
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