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Central Committee and the national executive councils of the MDC formations meet and be addressed by their leaders.
“The principals had agreed a long time ago that the central committees of the parties in the GPA should convene jointly for purposes of being addressed by the principals. The President made reference to that recently.
“What was delaying matters was that no date had been set for that and Cde Didymus Mutasa (Zanu PF secretary for administration) has been meeting his colleagues from other parties with the view to fixing the date for the meeting. In light of the Chitungwiza conflict, a date has now been set for Friday,” he said.
Mr Charamba said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai complained bitterly to the President that Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri had not acted to prevent clashes between the rival parties.
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“The President intimated to him (PM Tsvangirai) that the Police Commissioner-General was not at the venue of the clashes and had not deployed in Chitungwiza because the MDC-T made it clear to the police that they were not welcome to their meetings as the MDC-T was able to police itself,” he said.
This position by MDC-T, Mr Charamba said, made it impossible for the police to prevent the clashes.
“The President told the Prime Minister that the Police Commissioner-General can only deploy where he is wanted and where an incident has happened, the Commissioner-General will move in on the strength of the law. That was made clear to the Prime Minister,” Mr Charamba said.
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He said elections were also discussed and all political parties were anxious to proceed with the polls in terms of the agreed sequence.
Elections are scheduled to be held after the completion of the constitution-making process.
“The President made it clear that no political party would be ambushed,” he said.
Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, PM Tsvangirai confirmed the meeting of the principals discussed political violence and the meeting of the parties’ leadership.
“We have now agreed that on Friday we are going to convene a meeting of Central Committee and national executive councils of the three parties to discuss the issue of political violence,” PM Tsvangirai said.
He alleged that the parties’ leadership was instigating political violence and not ordinary members, making it necessary to convene the meeting.
“My party has reservations about that meeting, but we want all of us to make a commitment that violence will not be tolerated,” PM Tsvangirai said.
He said he had lost confidence in the country’s police force, adding that it was their duty to ensure law and order prevailed.
On elections, he said the principals had agreed that an election date will be announced upon the completion of the constitution-making process.
“We agreed that once a report of the constitution-making has been given, we must have a date of elections. However, there is no consensus (on the date) as yet but we will advise when that has been agreed,” said PM Tsvangirai. He added: “We will be discussing the issue and we will come up with a date but of course with conditions for credible elections . . . if the current situation prevails then the elections will be a sham.”
PM Tsvangirai, however, said the inclusive Government had outlived its mandate but said there currently was no alternative.
He said the inclusive Government had to prepare for credible elections whose outcome will be acceptable to everyone.
He claimed that his powers as mandated by the GPA were being undermined, especially by Zanu-PF Ministers whom he claimed have attended less than 30 percent of Council of Ministers meetings and had raised the issue with President Mugabe.
The PM also said some senior civil servants deliberately absented themselves from work when he visited provinces to supervise the implementation of Government programmes.
He said the principals also discussed bonuses for civil servants and welcomed the Kimberly Process’ decision to allow Zimbabwe to sell its diamonds. The bonuses are traditionally paid in November and are expected to cost an extra US$300 million on Government’s wage bill.
He slammed some sections of the media for promoting hate speech and called for a meeting between Government and editors from both the public and private media to discuss coverage of national issues.
Online Reporter