President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has accused prominent members of his ruling party of secretly consulting ancestral spirits in their quest to succeed him, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported Friday.
”Some leaders are consulting traditional healers and ancestral spirits in search of charms,” Mugabe told a rally in the remote Tsakare area near Mount Darwin, 200 km north of the capital.
”But it’s not about ancestral spirits, it’s about unity and people’s wishes,” he was quoted telling ruling party supporters at the meeting on Thursday, attended only by government media.
Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, and the focus of increasing controversy as Zimbabwe’s economy plunges deeper into crisis following disputed parliamentary and presidential elections, called for openness in what he termed ”the succession issue”.
Most western countries have rejected the legitimacy of March 2002 polls which gave Mugabe a further six year term, amid widespread allegations of rigging and intimidation.
Previously, talk of succession was stifled at every public meeting of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.
Mugabe defended his ”fast track” programme of redistributing 5 000 white owned farms to 300 000 black Zimbabweans, although United Nations agencies blame it for food shortages currently threatening the lives of eight million Zimbabweans.
The Central Statistical Office this week announced inflation had hit a new
record 269,2%. Mugabe said what was at stake was Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the government-sponsored War Veterans’ Association, at the centre of much of the violence since Mugabe lost a constitutional referendum in February 2000, has warned the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) it will not tolerate planned ”mass action’ to force Mugabe’s early resignation.
The MDC, led by veteran trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, has organised a series of nationwide stayaways to demand political and economic reform.
Patrick Nyaruwata, chairman of the organisation grouping self-proclaimed ex-guerillas from Zimbabwe’s 1972-80 bush war, said in a statement on Friday it would stop the next MDC protests scheduled for mid-June.
”This time, using our military experience we will mobilise against you,” he warned the MDC. ”The consequences of any mass action will be grave.
”Remember, most top security agents in defence, police, and the Central Intelligence Organisation are war veterans, and we will be co-ordinating with them.”
Zimbabwe has been suspended from active participation in the councils of the Commonwealth due to fellow members’ disquiet at human rights violations here, in which hundreds have been killed with impunity by pro-Mugabe activists. – Sapa-DPA