Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon says reports that President Thabo Mbeki has urged his Zimbabwean counterpart to end so-called land reform in that country are false, and that the president really said the opposite.
”President Mbeki did not, in fact, urge (President Robert) Mugabe to stop his land grabbing; he actually told him continue, to keep going and finish the job!” he said in a speech made at Kungwini, in Gauteng, on Friday.
Leon was reacting to media reports that Mbeki — during a news conference in the Botswana capital, Gaborone, on Thursday — had stated that land reform in Zimbabwe was not being carried out properly.
”We have seen for some time now that the matter is not being handled correctly,” the president was reported as saying.
Leon on Friday suggested the opposite was the case.
What Mbeki had said, was: ”There is no dispute about it, We need land redistribution in Zimbabwe… It is now a matter of how to conclude the situation of land distribution in Zimbabwe; and we continue to discuss it with them.
”We must establish what remains to be done so we can come to a situation of normalcy in that country as soon as possible.”
Leon said that over the past three years, ”it has been reported time and time again that President Mbeki has decided to get tough with Zimbabwe”.
”Many of us have hoped these reports were true, but every single time they were false.”
Leon also labelled Mbeki as ”Robert Mugabe’s foreign minister”.
”On March 19… it will have been one year since the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth began. President Mbeki says the suspension should end.”
Leon said he would use parliamentary question time on March 26 to ask Mbeki to explain his position ”that the Commonwealth troika does not need to meet, and that Zimbabwe should be reinstated”.
”I will ask him to show any evidence of progress in Zimbabwe that supports his position.
”We shall listen to his answers, and we shall see whether we have a leader ready to stand up for Nepad and for democracy, or whether Mbeki is really Robert Mugabe’s foreign minister,” Leon said. – Sapa