Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has admitted that international sanctions are hurting his country. Delivering the keynote address at the Zanu-PF congress, he railed against the usual suspect — British Prime Minster Tony Blair — for ”wanting the collapse of the Zimbabwe economy”.
”Blair’s government has grown desperate. They have gone about vilifying our country calling for sanctions. The agenda of the British is very clear.
”But what Blair’s government forget is there are a number of whites here, some of them British, whose style of life is much higher than that of an average citizen of Zimbabwe. There are 400 British companies operating here, making profits and remitting dividends to Britain. International sanctions will affect some of these companies as well.”
Mugabe expressed concern about corruption and the abuse of depositors’ funds in the financial sector. He said those guilty of transgressions ”have sought safe haven in Blair’s land and custody”.
He urged the party faithful to be vigilant and report people who were making them offers for their land and serving them with bogus eviction notices.
”Problems associated with land are matters we are grappling with … We want to deal with these matters once and for all. The land is now in our hands.”
The ageing Zimbabwean leader steered clear of mentioning the internal strife within his party that has seen six provincial chairpersons and the War Veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda barred from the party congress for breaking party protocol.
They have been suspended from the party for attending a meeting in Tsholotsho in the Matabeleland province organised by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo to lobby support for Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa’s bid for the vacant vice-presidency.
Mugabe and the Zanu-PF old guard endorsed Women’s League candidate Joyce Mujuru in what was the fiercest power struggle within the party since liberation in 1980.
Speculation is rife that Moyo, too, will be sanctioned by the party when its disciplinary committee convenes next week.
Speaking in his mother tongue, Shona, Mugabe told the more than 7 000 delegates that Blair was to blame for the ”negative publicity” his country has had to endure. ”All that’s been written about Zimbabwe is all lies,” he said, likening his predicament to ”the international onslaught against Saddam Hussein”. ÂÂ
In its latest report on Zimbabwe released this week, the International Crisis Group (ICG) urged the United States, Britain and the European Union to ”tone down their rhetoric and get behind African efforts”.
Suliman Baldo, director of Crisis Group’s Africa Programme, said the chances that the March elections ”can be a genuine turning point are small, but it is there … if African leaders push the Zanu-PF regime to live up to its commitments”.
Baldo said African monitoring teams must be dispatched to the country by January and press for the creation of a level electoral field, failing which elections should be postponed.
The report puts Mugabe’s approval rating at 58%. ”Partly out of his renewed sense of confidence, partly in reaction to the pressure from African quarters … Mugabe endorsed the [Southern African Development Community] SADC principles and guidelines. The specific legislative steps he indicates he will take to implement them, however, are flawed.”
The Guardian reports that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has indicated it is likely to take part in next year’s elections, even though it fears that the poll will not be free and fair.
The MDC national council is to meet soon, said the party’s secretary general, Welshman Ncube: ”Because of the disadvantages of non-participation, my guess is that the council will decide unanimously, or by a large majority, to take part.”