Cape Town, Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday appeared to be heeding to President Robert Mugabe's pressure that his Movement for Democratic Change must call for the removal of sanctions when he told a Cape Town public meeting that the international community must cease isolation on Zimbabwe.

Speaking at a public forum organised by the International Justice for Reconciliation (IJR), Tsvangirai who was accompanied by his National Healing Minister, Sekai Holland, told a packed auditorium: " It's important to acknowledge that the isolation must now come to an end."

"Its important to reward progress, by removing restrictions that impedes on progress," he said. "The international community must look at benchmarks to see what point they can engage Zimbabwe to restore normalisation," he added. "The international community has an obligation to see reconstruction because Zimbabweans have long suffered."

 He called on Zimbabweans to come back home. "I am convinced it is now appropriate to start reconstructing our lives at home," he said. "The challenges facing Zimbabwe are so huge for government to deal with them alone. Visit Zimbabwe and try and see what you can do."

He said Zimbabwe should return to the culture of reconciliation, pronounced by Mugabe when Zimbabwe got its independence in 1980. However he said this would not work without justice and truth. "I can sit down and look Mugabe in the face and disagree with him respectfully. I hope all Zimbabweans can be able to do this with one another so that we can build the country."

He said he was happy with the progress of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), saying the facilitators set up by South Africa's President Jacob Zuma would go back to Zimbabwe on Monday to finalise on the talks in order to meet the deadline set up by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) troika.

The GPA has not been fully implemented, 10 months after the formation of the unity government,  because of outstanding issues, chief among them, the removal of the Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, the Attorney General Johannes Tomana and the swearing in of MDC Treasurer General and deputy Agriculture Minister designate, Roy Bennett, currently facing terrorism charges.

Mugabe has refused to swear in Bennett, saying he must first be cleared of all court charges. Mugabe has also said that the MDC must tell the West to remove the sanctions it campaigned for.

Zimbabwe needs about USD 10 billion to revive its ailing economy in a country where unemployment is over 80 percent. Although now supermarkets are fully stocked with food, most people, are still struggling because economic analysts say the economic industry is still operating at about 20 percent of its capacity. Western donors say they will engage Zimbabwe once the country returns to rule of law and stop human rights abuses among other things.

Tsvangirai said although there were still pockets of political violence, farm invasions and illegal arrests, Zimbabwe was now generally peaceful and stable.

By Radio VOP