adminto be co-hosted by Zambia and Zimbabwe next year, President Mugabe said yesterday.
He said it was impossible to have both events next year.
The Head of State and Government and Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, made the remarks in Mt Darwin yesterday while launching the First Choice Wholesale.
The shop is a brainchild of the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives Development.
The cooperative owned wholesale concept intends to establish outlets in rural communities to bring basic goods to people.
The wholesalers get their wares from local producers and sell them at affordable prices in rural areas.
Addressing hundreds of people gathered at Mt Darwin Secondary School to witness the launch of the programme, President Mugabe said:
“We just have to go for elections this year. Moreso as next year we have to prepare for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly with Zambia. We have to have elections this year and leave next year clear,” President Mugabe said.
He challenged the Copac management committee to ensure that the constitution-making process was completed on time and avoid deliberate delaying tactics as a referendum had to be held soon and pave way for polls.
“The management committee should go and demand the consolidated report (from the Copac team) and bring it to us. We want to make decisions as the principals. We do not want to go into the second half of the year without a referendum,” President Mugabe said.
He made the remarks after Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development Minister Nicholas Goche, a member of the management committee and negotiator in the interparty talks, indicated to the President that they had not received the consolidated report.
“We are not scared to go for elections. We are ready, ready, ready, but we have not seen the consolidated report as the management committee,” Cde Goche said.
He said the management committee will speedily work on the constitution once it was availed with the consolidated report.
“If we fail to agree we will refer it to you as principals. We will not waste time,” Cde Goche said.
The Zanu PF leadership in Mashonaland Central urged President Mugabe to call for elections and do away with the inclusive Government.
They argued that the inclusive Government was not beneficial to the nation as parties to the inclusive political arrangement were pulling in different directions.
Said Zanu PF’s Mashonaland Central provincial chairman Cde Dickson Mafios: “Mashonaland Central is ready for elections.
“We are tired of the inclusive Government. Let us go for elections united and reclaim the two constituencies lost to the MDC in 2008”.
Mt Darwin South Member of the House of Assembly and Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere echoed the same sentiments.
“As Mashonaland Central, if we have elections today or tomorrow, we have a candidate. You are our candidate Your Excellency,” he said.
Online Reporter