Mugabe Starts Forming Government Without Mdc Consent

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said today he was in the process of forming a government without the consent of the MDC opposition party.

Speaking at a lunch to mark the official opening of parliament, he said: "We shall soon be setting up a government. The MDC does not want to come in apparently."

Any unilateral move to break the deadlocked talks between Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition is likely to infuriate the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. On Monday, opposition MPs jeered Mugabe when he went ahead with the state opening of parliament.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters it was wrong for Mr Mugabe to address parliament before a power-sharing deal was reached.

"The dialog has not been completed. It is arrogant and reckless for anybody to come and address parliament," he said.

But Mugabe's speech today, reported in the state-owned Herald newspaper, showed he was determined to ignore his critics. The President said he was going to appoint Cabinet ministers who can manage the business of the people.

"I need managers. I want workers — people who take people to work. I do not want people with own businesses. I want one business — the people's business," he said to applause from the dignitaries who included traditional leaders, government employees, business people and service chiefs.

Mugabe criticized some ministers in the outgoing Cabinet. "This Cabinet that I had was the worst in history. They look at themselves. They are unreliable, but not all of them," he said."The people are suffering and you want to exploit the poverty of the people. Let us police each other," he said.

In a revealing comment which goes some way to explain the reluctance of South African president Thabo Mbeki to criticize Mugabe in public, he said he had told Mbeki that he would never at any time speak ill of an African country in public to please the Americans and British.