Zanu-PF says no to MDC’s call for dialogue

via Zanu-PF says no to MDC’s call for dialogue | News24 2014-02-05

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party has rejected opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s call for dialogue between the two parties to help rescue the country’s ailing economy.

According to newzimbabwe.com, MDC’s secretary general and shadow finance minister Tendai Biti told reporters in Harare that his party was open to dialogue over forming another coalition administration.

The MDC worked with Zanu-PF in a unity government following the violent 2008 elections. The coalition which ended after Zanu-PF won the 31 July disputed elections was credited for easing a collapsing economy.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, however,  said the MDC was welcome to help set the country’s struggling economy, but only “from the opposition benches in Parliament”.

Gumbo conceded that the economic situation looked “dire” but said the framework was in place for a turnaround that would necessarily take some time, said the report.

Despite Mugabe’s lofty pre-election promises, six months into his new tenure, alarm bells are ringing in every corner, with beleaguered Zimbabweans bracing for a renewed and economic financial crisis.

As reports say, companies are laying off around 300 people every week and the promised one million new jobs remain a dream.

Biti, who is also a former finance minister, said it was clear that “Zanu-PF is directionless, and clueless and there has to be dialogue in this country”.