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Midnight deadline for Zimbabwe opposition

04/09/2008

Robert Mugabe has given the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) until midnight tonight to sign a power-sharing agreement or he will unilaterally appoint a cabinet.

Mr Mugabe told state media that Thabo Mbeki had flown to Harare in order to compel MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to agree to the unity government deal.

Zimbabwe has been without a cabinet since the hotly-disputed re-election of Mr Mugabe as president at the end of June.

Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential run-off amid escalating politically-motivated violence against his supporters.

A power-sharing agreement being brokered by South African president Mr Mbeki would see Mr Tsvangirai made prime minister, but the MDC is waiting for key concessions before signing any deal.

A party spokesman rejected Mr Mugabe's deadline on Thursday after the president warned Zimbabwe "cannot be frozen forever".

Mr Mugabe, who is facing the most serious challenge to his 28-year-old rule, blamed former colonial power Britain for the MDC's reluctance.

''We know that it is the British government behind it. It is the British government, which does not want an agreement, and as long as they do not want it, [Mr Tsvangirai] will not sign," he told Zimbabwe's state-run newspaper the Herald.

"They want the sanctions to continue to punish us into an agreement with them. It is the land question, and all this talk about democracy is nonsense."