Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday his MDC party refused to recognize a string of senior appointments made by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, in a fresh row set to strain their fragile coalition.
Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing administration with bitter rival Mugabe last year after disputed 2008 elections and briefly led his party in a boycott of the Cabinet in October last year citing frustrations in implementing the unity pact.
Addressing journalists after a meeting of his party’s top executives, Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of breaching the power-sharing agreement and the constitution in making senior government positions without consulting him.
However, he said he would not quit the unity government.
“We will refuse to recognize any of the appointments which the president has made illegally and unconstitutionally over the past 18 months,” Tsvangirai said.
The disputed appointments include the central bank governor, attorney general, five High Court and Supreme Court judges, six ambassadors, the police service commission and 10 provincial governors, who were re-appointed last week.
Despite the seniority of the disputed appointments, analysts said the move was largely symbolic and would not effect the operations of the government, which has helped stabilize an economy hit by hyperinflation about two years ago.
Tsvangirai appealed to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc, which brokered Zimbabwe’s power--sharing pact and is -mediating in conflict between the coalition partners, to intervene in the latest stand-off.
“It is nothing short of a constitutional crisis, which is why I have urged SADC to intervene as a matter of urgency,” Tsvangirai said.
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF was not immediately available for comment.
The two parties have also been wrangling over sanctions imposed by Western governments on Mugabe and his inner circle, as well as the president’s refusal to appoint farmer Roy Bennett, a senior Tsvangiral ally who was recently acquitted of treason, as deputy Minister of Agriculture.
“He [Mugabe] confirmed to me and [Arthur] Mutambara on Monday that he has no intention of ever swearing in Roy. The matter of Roy Bennett has now become a personal vendetta and part of a racist agenda,” Tsvangirai said.
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