No election ambush- Tsvangirai

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai today assured Zimbabweans and foreign investors that they would not be ambushed with an election.

Speaking at an investment conference in the capital Tsvangirai said President Robert Mugabe, the Southern African Development Community and himself had agreed that they would follow the Global Political Agreement processes to ensure free and fair elections.

“This means there is no need for anxiety among both Zimbabweans and investors about being ambushed with an election that has no preconditions and that is not in line with the dictates of the GPA,” he said.

He said there had been a lot of “misplaced election talk” over the past six months and this had tended to scare investors because of the violence that had accompanied this talk.

“I want to assure you that we will ensure that before we hold that election, there is a clear roadmap with clearly defined benchmarks to ensure a free and fair election,” he said.

The Prime Minister also said the indigenisation programme had caused a lot of consternation among investors but assured them that there was no government policy to nationalise or to expropriate businesses.

He said the 51 percent that was being talked about on indigenisation was “aspirational”.

“We have agreed that there should be thresholds for each sector so that we balance between the business interests of investors and the need to empower and ensure that ordinary Zimbabweans participate in the mainstream economy,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister’s speech in full.

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