Robert Mugabe dodged speculation on Friday about an extension to his presidency in an address to Zimbabwe’s ruling party after warning potential successors there is no vacancy at the top.
The 82-year-old, in power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, instead used his annual speech to Zanu-PF delegates to lambaste the one-time colonial masters as well as the United States while extending an olive branch to other European countries, which have boycotted Harare since 2002.
And in a typically defiant speech that appeared to reflect his continued appetite for power, Mugabe acknowledged that the Southern African country faces economic problems but vowed that Zimbabwe will tackle them on its own.
Mugabe had been widely expected to comment on his plans for the future after it was indicated that he wants the next presidential elections, due in 2008, to be held off until 2010 to coincide with parliamentary polls.
In comments published by the state-run Herald newspaper on Friday, he also told potential successors to stop jockeying for position and expressed fears that infighting could lead to the break-up of the party.
”[This] succession issue … is creating problems, stop it,” Mugabe was quoted as saying during a meeting of the Zanu-PF party’s central committee on Thursday night.
”Stop it, what’s the problem? There are no vacancies. Let’s not be over-ambitious. Time will come when vacancies will exist, but there are no vacancies now. None at all.”
But while the succession issue may well be raised from the floor of the conference, being held over the weekend about 50km east of Harare, Mugabe chose to avoid any reference to it during his hour-long speech.
Instead he renewed his attacks on London, saying: ”We must continue to teach the British that we are a sovereign nation.
”The political system is our own and they have nothing to do with it,” he added.
Britain led pressure for sanctions to be applied by the European Union against Mugabe and his senior cohorts in 2002 after widespread allegations that the last presidential elections had been rigged.
However, Mugabe, who has been looking since to forge closer ties with the likes of China and Russia, believes that he can still persuade some Western European countries to do business with his regime.
”Those who want to be friends with us, those in Europe who want to be friends with us, we are ready to reciprocate,” he said.
”If you don’t want to be friends with us, stay aloof and don’t interfere. Zimbabwe will not collapse anyway.”
He also had stinging criticism for Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon, who said on a visit to neighbouring South Africa earlier this week that Zimbabwe’s political and economic crises showed no sign of abating.
The New Zealander was ”a progeny of criminal descent” whose ancestors had been deported by the British ”because they were robbers and murderers”.
Observers believe the collapse in relations between Zimbabwe and the West has been a major factor behind the economic decline of the country, once regarded as a model for the Southern African region,
but which now struggles with four-figure inflation and unemployment running at about 80%.
”These are hard times we are going through and we know about it,” Mugabe told the conference.
But he also showed no sign of a back down on some of his most controversial policies, such as his land-reform programme, under which thousands of white-owned farms have been appropriated and then leased out by the government.
”We will continue to issue 99-year leases after assessments of the farms,” said Mugabe. — Sapa-AFP