business

What is solution to Zimbabwe political stalemate?

Posted: 1106 GMT

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Source: AFP/Getty Images

Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, has said that he would rather be “occupying space than throwing stones from outside.”
However, Tsvangirai has been criticized, even from within his own party, for compromising too much in order to “occupy” some of Zimbabwe’s political space. His party, the MDC, have been in a coalition government with Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF for the past two years, but key points in the 'power-sharing agreement' have still not been implemented.
Sticking points are the new constitution, targeted Western sanctions and the timing of new elections, among other issues.
Many worry that the MDC is a 'junior member' in the coalition and that Robert Mugabe has outmaneuvered Tsvangirai and his party.
Tsvangirai denied this when I put it to him in an interview. He said he shared equal executive power with Mugabe. He also stressed that Zimbabwe was a far more stable country since 2008 and, with that in mind, he is trying to drum up foreign investment to help boost the country’s fragile economy.