Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has dismissed claims that his rule was in its last throes, while a longtime critic renewed calls for a peaceful campaign to oust him.
Vice-President Joyce Mujuru and South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, meanwhile, met on Friday in what was described as a private visit.
It followed a threat by the Zimbabwean government to clamp down on reporters, telling foreign correspondents not to engage in peddling false stories on security issues.
Addressing a convention of the ruling Zanu-PF’s women’s league and youth members in Harare, Mugabe dismissed claims that his people and forces were no longer loyal, state television reported.
He said that those that are power-hungry in the party must be patient and that the future of leadership of the country would decided by Zimbabweans, it reported.
Mugabe (83) who has ruled Zimbabwe for 27 years since independence, is under increasing pressure to step down. Tensions are said to be rising in his party over his succession, which could topple him faster than street battles with a reinvigorated and determined political opposition.
The report also said Mugabe dismissed opposition claims that he and his government were on their final push, saying that at his age and with his experience he could not be pushed.
”The opposition is always calling for change, change, change. I am not pink. I don’t want a pink nose. I can’t change. I don’t want to be European. I want to be African,” he said.
Mugabe said the West was supporting the opposition in the use of violence to re-colonise Zimbabwe, the report said.
”They want our gold, our platinum, our land. These are ours forever,” he said. ”I will stand and fight for our rights of sovereignty. We fought for our country to be free. These resources will remain ours forever. Let this be understood to those in London.”
Mugabe said police used minimum force to stop the March 11 meeting in which opposition activists were allegedly assaulted by police and warned political leaders ”if you are a violent man you will meet more violence from the police.”
Private visit
South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Department spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the visit between Mujuru and Mlambo-Ngcuka was a private one, the South African Press Association reported.
”The vice-president of Zimbabwe is on a private visit to South Africa and therefore it is not on an official diary,” he said.
A local television station, e.tv, showed footage of Mujuru at the plush Westcliff Hotel in Johannesburg. She declined to answer a reporter’s questions.
Mujuru and her husband, the powerful former army commander General Solomon Mujuru, are leaders of one of the factions vying for succession in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe’s choice of Mujuru as one of two vice-presidents was seen as favouring her faction, but there has been a chill in relations as the debate in the party intensifies.
Earlier, Zimbabwean Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, repeated a call for street protests he had made a day earlier in an appearance before a gathering of clerics, pro-democracy activists and diplomats in Harare.
”This dictator must be brought down right now,” Ncube said at a meeting of the Solidarity Peace Trust, headed by church leaders and working for human rights in Zimbabwe. ”If we can get 30 000 on the streets then Mugabe will come down. I am ready to lead it. But my wish is to avoid violence.”
Ncube has long been an ardent critic of Mugabe but efforts by him in the past to rally Zimbabweans have not led to mass protests.
His latest comments come at a time when the opposition appears particularly determined.
Arthur Mutambara, leader of a Zimbabwean opposition faction, told a trade union meeting in Johannesburg that events of the last few weeks had unified the opposition and supported calls for further protests in Zimbabwe.
”We are going to drive Mugabe out of power through collaboration and working together.” Mutambara said.
Meanwhile, foreign reporters were told to beware of authorities and avoid opposition politicians, state radio and television reported on Friday.
The Zimbabwean media singled out the United States network CNN for what it called biased reports on political unrest and on the alleged assault and torture earlier this month of opposition leaders, including Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main Movement for Democratic Change.
Earlier this week, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the United States was interviewed on CNN. Machivenyika Mapuranga said a ban on allowing CNN reporters into Zimbabwe would continue, saying the broadcaster and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ”champion the imperialist interests of the British and the Americans”.
CNN anchor Michael Holmes responded: ”Reporting the comments of other governments is not acting on their behalf; it’s reporting.”
Four foreign journalists have been expelled under sweeping media laws enforced since 2003. The BBCC is officially banned. Scores of independent local journalists have been assaulted or arrested and jailed under the media laws. – Sapa-AP