Zimbabwe Opposition to Form Unity Govt Next Month

30/01/2009 | Al Manar Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Friday his party will join a unity government with President Robert Mugabe next month, heeding a call by Southern African leaders. "We are unequivocal, we will go into this government," Tsvangirai told reporters following a meeting of the national council of his Movement for Democratic Change party in Harare. "The SADC (Southern African Development Community) has decided and we are bound by that decision." "February 11 is the swearing in of the prime minister and the deputy prime minister," he said. "What the national council has endorsed is what the SADC has endorsed," he added. Regional leaders on Tuesday in Pretoria urged Zimbabwe's feuding parties to form a unity government by mid-February, with Tsvangirai to be sworn in as prime minister on February 11. Tsvangirai signed a unity accord with Mugabe on September 15, but the deal stalled over disputes on the naming of cabinet ministers and the control of security forces. Earlier Friday, Zimbabwe's political parties set up a joint body to monitor the implementation of the unity deal, a South African mediation team official said.