AP Interview: Zimbabwe’s president has ‘small window’ to act
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa has a “very small window” to show he is meeting national expectations of change after the downfall of predecessor Robert Mugabe, the country’s main opposition leader said Thursday.
Morgan Tsvangirai said in an interview with The Associated Press that it will be “very difficult to convince anyone” that Zimbabwe’s new leadership is improving the situation as long as much of the population is struggling to get by in the economically devastated country.
Tsvangirai spoke almost a week after the inauguration of Mnangagwa, a former vice-president and close ally of Mugabe for decades who promised that “harmonized” elections will be held as scheduled next year and that democracy will be strengthened. The opposition leader, who joined an uneasy coalition government with Mugabe after 2008 elections marred by violence and vote-rigging, said he has doubts about whether the new president will bring meaningful change.
“The president has to demonstrate that he’s different from Robert Mugabe, that some of the critical policies that he’s going to announce are different from what has been pursued for the last 10 years,” Tsvangirai said, adding that there has been “no dialogue” with the new leadership.