President Emmerson Mnangagwa says there will be no government of national unity because there is no need for it and he has no reason to abandon his two-thirds majority.
In an interview with Britain’s Sky News, which had asked him whether he would consider a government of national unity because of the split in the vote, Mnangagwa said: “In 1964 Harold Wilson of Britain beat the Conservatives by one seat and he formed the government and ruled England.
“I have a two-thirds majority and you are talking about me abandoning my two-thirds majority to form a government of national unity. Not that it’s a bad idea but it doesn’t show that there is any need.”
Mnangagwa beat Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance in last week’s elections but Chamisa has rejected the result.
His Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front won 145 of the 210 seats in the national assembly while the MDC won 63 with one going to the National Patriotic Front and another to an independent candidate.
There has been wide speculation especially in the privately owned media that Mnangagwa was thinking of setting up a government of national unity because of his narrow victory and claims by the main opposition that he rigged the elections.
The speculation seemed to have been fuelled by a statement by Mnangagwa that he was talking to Chamisa.
His spokesman George Charamba later clarified that it was Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu who was talking to Chamisa and not Mnangagwa per se.
Mnangagwa told Sky News that he won a free, fair and transparent election, so “politics should now take the back seat because the elections are now behind us.
“We should now put our shoulders to the wheel for purposes of modernizing our economy, growing our economy together.
“Those who voted against me, those who voted for me, we say Zimbabwe is ours together. Let’s move on. The best argument, the best vision, the best ideas have taken the day,” he said.
Sources within the Mnangagwa administration, however, say he might appoint one or two legislators from the opposition into his cabinet.
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