Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe Friday attacked whites in the country for refusing reconciliation and vowed his government would not tolerate any more protests from the opposition, state television reported.
”They (whites) never accepted our rule, black rule,” Mugabe told a rally in Nyamandlovu in southwestern Zimbabwe.
”They never accepted Zimbabwe was independent, they continued to live in Rhodesia in their imagination,” he said in reference to the country when it still under white minority rule.
”We can run this country without the whites,” he added.
Relations between the government and minority whites in Zimbabwe have been strained since Mugabe launched a controversial land reform programme three years ago. The programme has seen a fast track process of handing over white-owned land to blacks.
Mugabe accuses whites of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which last week organised five days of strikes and protests to protest alleged misgovernance.
”That (mass action) will never happen again,” Mugabe told cheering crowds, adding he was pleased opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was now in police custody.
He said opposition backers believed that by last Friday ”the MDC will be in government and Tsvangirai will be in State House (Mugabe’s official residence).
”I’m glad he’s in State House now,” he said, as crowds guffawed.
Tsvangirai was arrested last Friday and has spent the past week in custody. Charged with treason, the opposition leader is still awaiting a ruling on a bail application and was Friday set to spend another weekend in jail.
He is one among hundreds of opposition supporters arrested during the strikes and protests. The MDC blames the government for severe economic and social hardships in the country.
Mugabe said Zimbabwe needed peace.
”We need peace in the country, we need very much peace,” he said. – Sapa-AFP