FINALLY OPPOSITION COALITION!!!

PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Mavambo leader, Simba Makoni have condemned President Robert Mugabe’s threats to pull Zimbabwe out of SADC, with the MDC-T leader likening his bitter rival to a “suicidal character”. Speaking Monday at a joint press briefing to announce the formation of their own three-party coalition ahead the July 31 polls, Makoni said if Mugabe was serious about his threat then he had better act quick as his days in office we numbered. “If he does so, he only has as many days as between now and July 31 to pull Zimbabwe out of SADC unilaterally. That is the only window he has because after July 31 he will not be head of state and government and commander in chief,” Makoni said.

Mugabe threatened to pull Zimbabwe out of the regional bloc last Friday ashe launched his own election campaign in Harare. The Zanu PF leader Mugabe singled out Lindiwe Zulu, a member of SADC appointed facilitator, South African President Jacob Zuma’s backroom staff, describing her as a “stupid and idiotic street woman”. Zulu has angered Zanu PF by continuously insisting on the implementation of reforms ahead of the watershed polls, a demand also made by the MDC parties.

But Tsvangirai said Mugabe was acting emotionally over an important matter.

“Zimbabwe’s crisis has been under the curatorship of SADC and the AU for the last four and a half years,” he said.

“It would be suicidal for Zimbabwe to talk about pulling out of SADC in the face of this guarantourship that SADC has provided and what AU has backed. Let’s hope that President Mugabe was merely reacting emotionally and rationally.

“I don’t foresee a situation in which Zimbabwe can pull out in the face of two million (Zimbabwean) inhabitants in South Africa; in the face of a country which is so dependent on regional support. In fact they (SADC) pulled us (from the) precipice for us to have these four and a half year of respite.

“It can only mean one thing if we have to measure the reaction of President Mugabe that he is the kind of character who would like to burn down the building with all of us in that building.

“Zimbabweans have experienced isolation over the last 10 years. One of the typical examples, can Mugabe drive this country up to 2008 and l don’t think across the political divide anyone would find that as rational thinking.”