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01/05/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
ZAMBIA’S Vice President Guy Scott has launched an astonishing attack on South African President Jacob Zuma, describing him as “very like De Klerk” – the last leader of the racist apartheid regime.
Zuma had an exaggerated sense of South Africa’s standing in the world, Scott said as he revealed how the ANC leader had told other SADC leaders including Zambia’s Michael Sata to “leave Zimbabwe to me”.
"He's very like De Klerk. He tells us, 'You just leave Zimbabwe to me.' Excuse me, who the hell liberated you anyway, was it not us? I mean, I quite like him, he seems a rather genial character but I pity him and his advisers."
Zuma, who took over from former President Thabo Mbeki as the region’s point man on Zimbabwe where mediation efforts led to the formation of a power sharing government in 2009, is expected in Harare within days to discuss preparations for forthcoming elections.
Speaking to the UK Guardian newspaper on Wednesday, Scott appeared to put up a defence for President Robert Mugabe whom he says wants to leave power after 33 years at the helm.
"I think if you asked him he'd say it was enough. That's what he said to us a few months ago. I said the way forward in African democracy is the way we do it in Zambia. He said, 'I absolutely agree, I wish it would happen to me.'"
Asked if that meant losing an election, Scott replied: "Yes, and a smooth handover. I think he meant it, or he was toying with the idea of meaning it. He wanted to hear how it sounded, maybe. Or something."
Scott went on to describe 89-year-old Mugabe's persona.
"He's a funny chap. He seems to doze off and then he suddenly laughs at a joke while in the middle of dozing. And very articulate, without a note, without a scrap of anything.
"He's an Anglophone. He loves to give lectures on the English language, English weighing systems, English this or that. He was a teacher and so he taught himself all that."
Zambian President Sata – whom Scott refers to as "the boss" – is known to be on friendly terms with Mugabe.
"I'm sure any good African nationalist admires Mugabe," the vice-president added. "Racism in Zimbabwe is a serious issue. I was sent to school down there and it was like being in the Hitler Youth: the theories about black inferiority and this kind of stuff.
"It was a whites-only school; they tried to introduce an Indian and he was hounded out at the instigation of the parents of the boys. I think Mugabe is a product of having to contend with that."
Defence ... Guy Scott says Mugabe's politics influenced by experienced racism
But talking about the region’s largest economy, South Africa, its politicians and its people, Scott bristled with indignation.
"The South Africans are very backward in terms of historical development," he said. "I hate South Africans. That's not a fair thing to say because I like a lot of South Africans but they really think they're the bees' knees and actually they've been the cause of so much trouble in this part of the world.
"I have a suspicion the blacks model themselves on the whites now that they're in power. 'Don't you know who we are, man?'"
Scott scoffed at the inclusion of South Africa in the BRICS grouping of emerging economies.
"They think in BRICS that the 's' actually stands for South Africa whereas it stands for Africa. Nobody would want to go in for a partnership with Brazil, China, India and South Africa for Christ's sake.
"I dislike South Africa for the same reason that Latin Americans dislike the United States, I think. It's just too big and too unsubtle."
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=32146
Chiawa denies land wrangle reports
By Henry Sinyangwe
Wed 01 May 2013, 14:00 CAT
CHIEFTAINESS Chiawa has denied reports that there are land wrangles in her area. Recently, 25 representatives from 10 villages stormed the Kafue district commissioner's office to register their displeasure over the manner land was being offered to foreign businessmen.
But chieftainess Chiawa's representatives Christopher Musanda and Ernest Shikalomo disputed the claims, saying the chief had never sold any land.
Musanda said most of the land where the lodges had been built are on the eastern part of the game management area and the community had sat and agreed to allocate small pieces of land to the tour operators.
"… Chieftainess Chiawa has not sold any land. She is entitled by law to give consent to any investor who comes in the area after some application has been made. This issue of saying chieftainess Chiawa has now sold land in the area is not true," he said.
And Shikalomo said no one had been evicted from any land.
"Displacing of villagers as reported is a total blue lie. No eviction has been done, not a even land from the river front has been sold," said Shikalomo.
"In Mugulameno village almost 2000 people there are still fetching water in the Zambezi River, they have gardens there and they fish from there. But where is that land which these people are claiming to have been sold and if there are any barriers, how are the people managing to do all the activities in the river?"
Kafue member of parliament Obvious Mwaliteta has since advised the villagers to dialogue with the chieftainess over the matter.
Labels: GUY SCOTT, JACOB ZUMA, SADC
posted by MrK @ 8:10 PM
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