Zim PM’s party unveils post-election plan

[iolsa]

Harare - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai unveiled his election-year pitch to voters Friday, vowing to remake the economy and usher in a period of reform and renewal if he becomes president.

Tsvangirai gave a first taste of his party's election platform, which will pledge to win back foreign investors and clip the security services' wings.

“We will open Zimbabwe for business, usher in substantive reforms in various sectors with the sole objective of spurring economic growth,” said Tsvangirai.

The long-time opposition leader staked out policies diametrically opposed to those of his rival, President Robert Mugabe.

“Ours is a revolutionary and transformative policy programme that will certainly lay the basis for a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning,” he told the party faithful.

His pitch was designed to appeal to the millions of unemployed Zimbabweans and those in rural areas “who are struggling to survive”, he said.

Although much has improved in recent years, the country's economy is still smarting from the repercussions of a nearly decade-long downturn.

Tsvangirai's vision put clear distance between the MDC and Mugabe's ZANU-PF platform of indigenisation.

The 89-year-old president has made redistributing wealth and land from white to black Zimbabweans a pillar of his 33 years in office.

Critics say the policies forced the Zimbabwean economy to its knees and has served only the president's cronies