Condemning Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is counterproductive and international powers should instead put their weight behind regional diplomatic efforts to unseat him, Tanzania’s president said in an interview published Friday.
Speaking to the Financial Times in Paris, Jakaya Kikwete insisted the diplomatic approach favoured by African leaders ”will pay dividends” and said it should be given more time.
”Tanzania is standing by the people of Zimbabwe, including President Mugabe,” Kikwete told the business daily.
”We subscribe to the idea of working with them to get a solution, because if you end up condemning and insulting [Mugabe] he will not listen to you.
”Mugabe is there. He is president; he has been elected. If Tanzania said, ‘You are hopeless! A murderer! A violator of basic human rights!’ does that remove Mugabe from office? It doesn’t.”
Kikwete added that bringing an end to Mugabe’s reign in Zimbabwe would provide a solution in itself only ”if you think the problems in Zimbabwe are solely related to President Mugabe”.
”Our approach has been, ‘let’s make these people talk’,” Kikwete said, referring to discussions hosted by South Africa between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and opposition groups.
”We want to see the next elections conducted on a level playing field: free, fair and peaceful … That will give the people of Zimbabwe an opportunity to choose a leader of their choice.”
Kikwete’s comments come ahead of a December summit of European Union and African leaders in Lisbon. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already said that he will not attend the summit if Mugabe is present.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis with the world’s highest rate of inflation and four out of five people jobless. About 80% of the population live below the poverty threshold.
Separately, Kikwete added that if investigations into the 2002 sale of a radar system by BAE Systems to Tanzania for £28 billion ($57,1-billion) was corruptly inflated, Tanzania would seek compensation.
”I don’t know how to get the money but if [the radar] is overpriced, definitely we deserve to be paid … They cannot take money from a poor country.”
Asmal breaks ranks
Meanwhile, Business Day reports that African National Congress MP Kader Asmal has broken ranks on the SA government’s policy of quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe.
The business daily said Asmal -‒ speaking at the launch of a book in Cape Town -‒ likened Mugabe’s actions to those of Cambodia’s Pol Pot.
He said South Africans were constantly reminded by their ”betters” that only Zimbabweans could decide on their future.
He said at the launch of Through the Darkness ‒- A Life in Zimbabwe by Judith Todd, the daughter of former Southern Rhodesia prime minister Garfield Todd, that Zimbabweans could only be ”conscious actors for change if there is a level political field”, said Business Day. ‒ Sapa-AFP