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President Tsvangirai’s statement to the people of Zimbabwe

epa01518177 Zimbabwe's prime minister designate and main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai addresses supporters at a rally in Harare, Zimbabwe, 12 October 2008. Tsvangirai threatened to pull out of a national unity government, slamming an official government list published 11 October that gave all the main ministries, including defence, home and foreign affairs, justice, mining and land to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. Under the power-sharing agreement, the opposition gets 16 cabinet seats and Zanu-PF gets 15, reflecting official results of parliamentary elections held in March. Mugabe remains president and head of the Cabinet, and Tsvangirai heads a council of ministers responsible for government policy that Mugabe does not attend. Meanwhile, the country's humanitarian crisis is worsening as delays in forming the government have dashed hopes of an inflow of aid. The UN World Food Program predicts a famine emergency with 45 per cent of the country's population needing food aid by early 2009. Zimbabwe's economic collapse, with annual inflation at around 231 million per cent, has prevented people from buying seeds, fertilizer and farming equipment. The country is facing chronic shortages of food, medicine, gasoline, currency, electricity and water. EPA/STR

 

President Tsvangirai’s statement to the people of Zimbabwe

Fellow Zimbabweans, I write to express my heartfelt thanks to you all for the overwhelming support you continue to give me in my temporary period of indisposition.

The personal messages and the support you are giving me and my family is humbling. I want to thank you all for that awesome support to the party and the family, including my loving wife who is by my side as I return to full recovery.

I am equally aware, however, of the morbid wishes of some of my fellow countrymen. But I want to assure them that Morgan Tsvangirai will soon be back to be the usual pain to those at the helm of mis-governance; those who oppress the people and who are turning a blind eye to all this sickening poverty around us. I remain fully aware of and concerned with what we are all going through collectively as a people and as a country.

I am told that they have closed the country down today. All the suffering and struggling vendors have been asked to close shop and join a march to prop up the ego of Robert Mugabe. It is lost on them that it is the country–and not the people–that must be on a brave march to stability and progress.

To friends and foe alike, I want to assure you that I am recovering. I assure you that I must not be the cause of any national uncertainty.  The irony is that yes, I may be indisposed, but I am more worried about my country and its economy that seem to be in a far much worse state than my personal state of health. It is the country that we all love that needs urgent healing.  It is our country that must be the biggest worry for all of us, not only for our personal sake but for the sake of the legacy we must leave behind for future generations.

Rest assured, I am on the path to full recovery and I will be joining you soon to continue with the struggle for freedom, peace, democracy and national prosperity.

I wish you all a happy Africa Day.

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