President Robert Mugabe used Zimbabwe’s 26th independence celebrations to warn the opposition he will ruthlessly crush street protests against his government and to remind foreign-owned mining firms he was still contemplating seizing shareholding in their businesses.
Mugabe, who was addressing a several thousands of people gathered at Harare’s National Sports Stadium for the celebrations, warned opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party leader Morgan Tsvangirai he was ”playing with fire” by attempting to instigate a Ukrainian-style revolt against his government.
”There are some who say they no longer want elections, saying they now will change the government through mass protests … I warn them, they are playing with fire and they should stop,” said Mugabe, who was speaking in the vernacular Shona language.
Tsvangirai, who says the MDC has lost faith in elections because Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party always rigs them, has in the last three weeks toured major cities mobilising his supporters for mass protests whose date he has not yet announced.
The opposition leader says the street protests are meant to force Mugabe to pave way for a transitional government that will be tasked with spearheading the writing of a new and democratic Constitution that would lead to free and fair elections under the supervision of the international community.
But Mugabe, who last month told Tsvangirai street protests would be a ”dice with death”, vowed never to leave office because of public protests and mockingly told the opposition it would be ”trimmed to size” if it ever attempted to gain power through ”mob action”.
The Zimbabwean leader, who last month said a draft law proposing to force foreign-owned mining firms in the country to surrender a 51% stake to the government and local blacks was not government policy but only a position for debate, appeared to backtrack on that position, insisting that his government wanted a balance in mine ownership.
”We shall be bringing up policies and the regulatory measures to effect a balance that we would like to see between those who hold shares and Zimbabweans,” said Mugabe, whose government has in the past six years seized land from whites without compensation for redistribution to landless blacks.
The land seizures that Mugabe defended as necessary to ensure a fair distribution of land between blacks and whites are largely to blame for food shortages in the country because the newly resettled black farms did not have cash or other resources, as well as the skills, to maintain production on the seized farms while the government, itself facing severe cash problems, could not give back-up to the new land owners.
The country’s Chamber of Mines has warned any seizure or forced sale of stakes in mines to the government and local blacks is certain to lead to a collapse of the mining sector, now the country’s largest hard-cash earner after the collapse of agriculture. The mining sector is also the only one in the country still enjoying a significant presence of foreign investors.
Zimbabwe is grappling a severe economic crisis that has spawned shortages of food, fuel, essential medical drugs, electricity and just about every other basic commodity. Inflation is pegged at 913% while conservative estimates say unemployment is more than 70%.
Critics blame repression and incorrect policies by Mugabe for ruining Zimbabwe’s once-brilliant economy. But the veteran leader rejects the charge, saying Zimbabwe’s problems are in fact a result of sabotage by Western governments opposed to his land reforms.
Mugabe also used the independence celebration to heap more scorn on the West, which he accused of attempting to put Zimbabwe on the United Nations Security Council agenda but were blocked by ”progressive states” that are friendly to Harare. – ZimOnline