“The inclusive government is gradually eroding our confidence in the arrangement’s ability to solve the problems that the country faces,” newly elected Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) chairman Jonah Gokova said at the weekend.
The CZC is a coalition of human and civic rights groups, churches, women’s groups, labour and student movements that have campaigned for a peaceful and democratic settlement of Zimbabwe’s political crisis.
The pressure group said that the solution to Zimbabwe’s problems should not be left to the three political parties – President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF and the two MDC parties led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara – who signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that gave birth to the unity government in February.
“Our crisis is a crisis of governance and can not be resolved by political engagement alone but through an all inclusive process that involves all citizens of Zimbabwe,” Gokova told the organisation’s annual general meeting in Harare.
Zimbabwe’s unity government that is seen as offering the country the best opportunity in a decade to wriggle out of economic and political crisis has done well to stabilise the economy and end inflation that was estimated at more than a trillion percent at the height of the country’s economic meltdown last year.
But analysts remain doubtful about the administration’s long-term effectiveness, citing unending squabbles between ZANU PF and MDC as well as by the coalition government’s inability to secure direct financial support from rich Western nations.
* Zimonline
