Zimbabwe prime minister Tsvangirai ends cabinet boycott

November 6, 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister of Zimbabwe, said on Thursday that he was calling off his boycott of the coalition government with president Robert Mugabe. The prime minister said he was giving Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party 30 days to work on "the pertinent issues we are concerned about".

Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party had pulled out of the coalition government three weeks ago, protesting what they called harassment of Mugabe opponents and accusing the president of not fulfilling the power-sharing agreement agreed to in February.

"We have suspended our disengagement from the GPA [Global Political Agreement] with immediate effect and we will give President Robert Mugabe 30 days to implement the agreement on the pertinent issues we are concerned about," Tsvangirai said. His move came after he attended a meeting in Mozambique with the Southern African Development Community.