Mugabe is the 'glue' holding Zimbabwe together - EU

President Robert Mugabe is the "glue" that is holding Zimbabwe's "contradicting forces" together, European Union (EU) Head of Mission Aldo Dell'Ariccia said Tuesday.

Contributing at a one-day workshop in Harare hosted by lobby group, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which ran under the title Transcending Politics, The state of the Economy and International Re-engagement, Dell'Ariccia said there was no leadership crisis in the country as claimed by some analysts.

"There is no leadership crisis in Zimbabwe because you have a leader who has been able to hold together all these contradicting forces. We are talking about the reality of the situation which is there now, not about what will happen in the future," said the EU envoy.

However, he said, the future remained uncertain as to what would happen in the event that Mugabe is unable to perform his duties for one reason or another.

"Of course, there is uncertainty, but we are not worried about that for now because we would want to take advantage of the leadership that is there and work with it for the good of all," Dell'Ariccia said.

The EU representative was reacting to comments made by socio-political scientist Ibbo Mandaza who said Zimbabwe was in a leadership crisis and that the current leadership across the political divide had failed.

"The old leadership has failed and it is up to the new generation to take up the baton and rescue this country. We have a crisis of leadership and even the opposition should now be moulded around younger leaders," Mandaza said.

He took a pot-shot at government's latest economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-economic Transformation (ZimAsset).

"ZimAsset is a political statement with no substance," Mandaza said.

In response, Dell'Ariccia defended the draft policy saying government was aware that the blueprint was a framework that required funding to implement.

"I hear you bashing the ZimAsset document. It is a blueprint and is still work in progress. I am sure the minister of Finance (Patrick Chinamasa) is aware of that and that is why he has been talking to the African Development Bank to get funding in order to transform the document into a development strategy," he said.

Economist Moses Chundu said the regime change mantra had not only lost track, but was now out of sync with reality.

"Talking of regime change in the old tone is a tired script overtaken by time and events. It is a sad reality that we are stuck with a regime that is not as patriotic as it says it is," Chundu said.

"The issue of questioned legitimacy is  no longer an issue, it is (the Zanu PF government) here to stay and the best we can hope for is for the leadership to respect the basic principles and laws of economic management."

The opposition MDC-T led by Morgan Tsvangirai, reeling from internecine fights, has maintained that last year's elections won by Zanu PF with a two thirds majority  were "rigged".

Chundu argued that despite the gloom, Zimbabwe's economy would not implode, but on condition that: "Government avoids the populist trap as it has always backfired. Zimbabwe will not collapse if government avoids the dual temptation of re-introducing the Zimbabwe dollar and price controls.

"The attitude of the government towards addressing corruption that is now endemic is also critical, but as for civil society and the opposition, we could do well to lobby for legal reforms to back-up good policy formulation, changes to various laws especially on the rule of law, civil rights and electoral amendments before the 2018 elections in compliance with the new constitution."

Dell'Ariccia's comments and the pronouncements by civic society– traditional backers of the opposition– analysts said, were likely to send shockwaves, particularly in the MDC-T, which has always relied on the Western block's negative attitude towards Zanu PF and Mugabe.

At the turn of the century, Mugabe, once a darling of the West, fell out of favour after embarking on a land re-distribution exercise. The Zimbabwean leader has since been accused of human rights abuses and slapped with travel restrictions together with his wife, Grace.

However, following the harmonised elections last year in which Mugabe received another ringing endorsement, there has been a thawing of relations epitomised by the scrapping of restrictive measures by the EU on the president's lieutenants.