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Tsvangirai didn’t snub Mugabe’s birthday celebrations – Charamba

Tsvangirai didn’t snub Mugabe’s birthday celebrations – Charamba
Written by George Chellah in Harare, Zimbabwe
Tuesday, March 03, 2009 12:29:45 PM

PRESIDENTIAL spokesperson George Charamba has said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai did not snub President Mugabe's 85th birthday celebrations over the weekend but he realised it was a ZANU-PF event.

Reacting to reports that Prime Minister Tsvangirai snubbed the birthday celebrations, which were held in Chinhoyi, Charamba said Prime Minister Tsvangirai realised that the occasion was a party event.

Charamba, who is also secretary for information and publicity, said Prime Minister Tsvangirai even notified President Mugabe of his absence at the celebrations in advance.

"Prime Minister Tsvangirai wrote to the President on Friday evening expressing himself on today's event upon realising it is a party programme. It is not a snub," Charamba said.

Last week, the Prime Minister's Office had earlier indicated that Prime Minister Tsvangirai would attend the celebrations following an invitation by President Mugabe.

And during the 21st February Movement celebrations held to celebrate his 85th birthday, President Mugabe said disputes over land in Zimbabwe could not be determined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal based in Namibia because the country had competent courts that could determine the rights of the people.

President Mugabe, who described the decision by some white farmers to take the matter to the tribunal as "nonsensical", warned that white farmers whose farms had been legally acquired by the state should vacate the farms

He maintained that they should vacate the farms instead of wasting time taking the matter to the tribunal.

President Mugabe said the land reform exercise was not reversible.

He said the process of acquiring land was on-going and advised those given the land to use it productively.

"There are farms in the provinces of Mashonaland East, West and Central, which are more agricultural than others and also in other provinces like Masvingo, Midlands and elsewhere farms which have been designated in accordance with our laws," President Mugabe said.

President Mugabe said offer letters had been given to the people in accordance with the law.

"Let not the original owners of the farms refuse to vacate those farms. Again, I want to say, the farmers who owned these farms, which now have been designated and have been offered to new land owners in accordance with our land acquisition law, must respect that law. They must vacate those farms," President Mugabe said. "Once a new owner has been given an offer letter in accordance with the law, the original owner must vacate that farm. Yes, the original owner must be given some warning. True, he must wind up, but winding up must not last year in and year out. It must be within an acceptable timeframe."

The SADC tribunal last November ruled that 78 white Zimbabweans, who had appealed to the tribunal to look into their land-grab case, could keep their farms because Harare's land reform scheme discriminated against them.

Judge Luis Mondlane, president of the tribunal, said Zimbabwe had violated the treaty governing the 15-nation regional bloc by trying to seize the white-owned farms.

He said Zimbabwe was in "breach of the SADC treaty with regards to discrimination" and that "the 78 applicants have a clear legal title (for their farms) and were denied access to the Judiciary locally."

Three of the 78 farmers have already been forced from their land, and the court ruled that Zimbabwe had also violated the treaty by failing to pay them fair compensation.

Labels: GEORGE CHARAMBA, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, ZANU-PF

posted by MrK @ 12:30 PM