March 17, 2007	Saturday	Safar 27, 1428

HARARE: Zimbabwe’s fractious opposition said on Friday that a government crackdown had brought the feuding factions back together and focused their energies on their common foe, President Robert Mugabe.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), once seen as the biggest threat to Mugabe’s rule, has been a shadow of its former self since late 2005 when it split in two in a dispute over whether to contest Senate elections.

But both sides insisted at a press conference on Friday they would now work together following the events of the last week, which has seen both factions’ leaders arrested and then beaten.

“We let down Zimbabweans in 2006 by bickering and name calling among ourselves,” said Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the main MDC faction-led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

“We are not going to allow that to continue.” The split in MDC ranks came after Tsvangirai, the one-time trade union leader who set up the MDC in 1999, expelled 26 senior figures a fortnight before elections he warned would be rigged.

The renegades, who had opposed Tsvangirai’s decision to boycott the polls, refused to accept their expulsion and set up a splinter group led by former student leader Arthur Mutambara.

Until last weekend, the divisions had enabled Mugabe to remain largely unchallenged despite the prevailing economic crisis which has seen inflation soar to 1,730 per cent and stores run out of cooking oil and sugar.

But Mutambara and Tsvangirai made a point of standing alongside each other in the dock on Tuesday where they were to have faced charges over attempts to take part in a rally last Sunday organised by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign.

“If Robert Mugabe and his people thought they were confronting a divided opposition they are wrong,” Mutambara said on Friday.

“Yes, we have differences but we are going to manage our differences.” Similar sentiments came from Thokozani Khupe, deputy head of the Tsvangirai faction, who said solidarity among the opposition was crucial.

“For me a normal person should realise that we need unity of purpose,” Khupe said.

“It’s now time to say all democratic forces in Zimbabwe have to now work together.” According to John Makumbe, a political scientist from the University of Zimbabwe, it may be too early to expect a formal reunification but the events of the last week had brought them closer together.

“The prospects look good and the onus is on the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, particularly the Christian Alliance, to push the two camps to settle their differences and focus on the core business to access power,” said Makumbe.

“We have seen in the past week, the two sides walking side by side. The prospects look good as we approach 2008 for them to work together. It would benefit the nation. They will become stronger.” Trudy Stevenson, a lawmaker loyal to Mutambara, was the victim of an assault last year that she blamed on Tsvangirai supporters.

She said talk of divisions was “all ZANU propaganda”, referring to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party.“They want to cause the division in the opposition. The two (MDC) sides basically have the same policies so there is no way we can’t work together,” she added.

There were already signs of a thaw between the two factions before police crushed last Sunday’s rally as both were among the 23 groups who agreed at a meeting in December to unite under banner of the “Save Zimbabwe Campaign”.—AFP