(TALKZIMBABWE) Nujoma warns West over Zim, Africa

Nujoma warns West over Zim, Africa
TZG reporter and sources
Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:47:00 +0000

FORMER Namibian president Sam Nujoma told a rally of his party the South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo) over the weekend that his country and the rest of the region will not sit back and watch the West carry out their illegal regime change agenda to topple President Mugabe.

The support for Zimbabwe came as the United States, through their Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, admitted openly for the first time that it had sanctions on Zimbabwe, but said it would not be lifting them.

Former President Nujoma, came out strongly against Western powers that funded opposition parties on the African continent and elsewhere in the world for their own interests and took exception to illegal attempts to topple President Mugabe.

He was speaking as news that the MDC-T party was being secretly funded by the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) made the headlines.

"The white imperialists should be careful not to topple Cde President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, because if you touch Zimbabwe, then you touch Namibia and the whole Southern African Development Community."

The veteran nationalist, who during the anti-Apartheid struggle, took the combat name "Shafiishuna", meaning "lightning", was addressing a Swapo star rally at Ongwediva in the Oshana region.

"It is because of the Western powers and those colonialists that oppositions are formed in our countries in the African continent and elsewhere in the world," he said.

Nujoma, who was the president of Namibia from 1990-2005, said U.S. and Britain imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe because the Zimbabwean people had demanded their land from the white minority who were historically privileged by the racist colonial system.

"How could one impose sanctions against people who are demanding their own land? It was made that those who have too much land or many farms should give some to the Government so that the landless black people could be resettled there.

"The whites have been on our necks and colonised us for a long time, they crossed with our people through the Atlantic Ocean and made us slaves in their countries. ‘Omushiningwa iha dhimbwa, ashike omushiningi oye owala ha dhimbwa’. (The victim will not forget, but the wrongdoer will forget easily.)

"The whites must be careful, if they play with us we will thoroughly deal with them," Nujoma said in his fiery speech.

He said imperialist countries were facing the prospect of poverty and were redoubling their efforts to loot African resources to sustain their own economies.

Nujoma, whose Swapo party gave the title of Leader of the Namibian Revolution, said imperialist countries are now poor because they used up all their natural resources and are now looking to exploit Africa and Asia. Because they have all knowledge and skills, they come to African and Asian countries to tap the natural resources and take them to their countries for their own benefit.

Nujoma compared the white minorities who refused to fully integrate after African independence to a black mamba, which even if you keep it in a room for years, it would one day bite you.

"Whites are dangerous, just like a black mamba, if they oust President Mugabe, they will oust another president in the African continent," he said.

He accused Britain, the United States and Germany of violating democracy and human rights in parts of the world such as Iraq, Afghanistan and in Zimbabwe.

"They talk about human rights and democracy. Where do they know human rights and democracy if they kill Asians, Iraqis and Afghanis daily?" Nujoma charged.

Nujoma said, Sadc countries are united and will stand up to anyone who violates the rights of one of its member countries.

"Let us beat them, not with knopkieries, but with hammers in their heads, if they touch one of our Sadc countries."

He called on all Namibians and Africans in general to be ready to fight against "the imperialists now killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan", because it was possible that they would come to Africa next.

Nujoma accused African newspapers of failing to report on "Americans killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan".

"Those newspapers must know, the day God will be away from them, and Satan comes to them, we will deal with them," Nujoma said.

Nujoma had a prepared speech of more than six pages in English, but did not use it and delivered his speech in Oshiwambo.

Last week, Ambassador Carson tacitly said Washington had imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, as opposed to the "restrictive measures" talked about by the MDC-T party..

The MDC-T party through the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Gorden Moyo, denied the existence of sanctions on Zimbabwe and instead claimed these were either "restrictive" or "targeted" measures; although the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy Recovery Act passed by the U.S. in 2001 is clear on the issue.

ZIDERA imposes penalties on companies that trade with Zimbabwe and impose restrictions on international financial institutions on lending to Zimbabwe. The U.S. president, through ZIDERA places an embargo on entities such as Ziscosteel, ZB Bank and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation which are not owned by any one individual and which employ thousands of people.

Carson said "We reserve the right to lift those sanctions when we want to do so and when we see progress." - The Namibian/TH/New Era/TZG