by Our reporter
Zimbabwe is in Sadc voluntarily and can walk out of the regional grouping if “it decides to do stupid things”, President Mugabe has said.
He said for now Sadc has had “good sense” with some of its members acquitting themselves well except for people of no authority, in apparent reference to South African president Jacob Zuma’s international relations advisor Ms Lindiwe Zulu whom he described as “some stupid, idiotic woman”.
Ms Zulu — who had no locus standi in the Sadc mediation process — transformed herself into facilitator and godmother of electoral process in Zimbabwe with disastrous consequences. even though only her boss was appointed facilitator in his personal capacity
The President made the remarks while addressing thousands of Zanu-PF supporters who thronged the Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare, for the launch of the Zanu-PF election campaign and manifesto.
“Let it be known that we are in Sadc voluntarily. If Sadc decides to do stupid things, we can move out. But for now we have had a Sadc which has good sense, although from some quarters, unfortunately these were not quarters of authority, they were just utterances by some stupid idiotic woman saying no elections cannot be held on 31st of July even against the ruling of our court. An ordinary sick woman saying no, ah!” he said.
President Mugabe said such persons must know that Zimbabwe is an independent country and would not take heed of “street utterances which were stupid and idiotic”.
“Zimbabwe was fought for and on 18 April 1980 we got our independence. We are fully independent. We fought the British to get them out of our country. We will defend our sovereignty against any interest from any quarter,” he said to wild applause from the gathering.
President Mugabe said Zimbabwe found itself in a situation where all and sundry thought they could say anything about Zimbabwe because of the mistake made in 2008 which saw the party failing to resoundingly win the harmonised elections, forcing it into an incompatible inclusive Government with the MDC formations.
“Anyway, we are in that situation where even this little street woman (Lindiwe Zulu) could make utterances because of our mistakes of 2008. Let us not make other mistakes, you can see that they invite all and sundry outside our country to make utterances about Zimbabwe. ‘Zimbabwe must do this’; ‘Zimbabwe must do that’. That must end,” he said to thunderous applause from the crowd.
President Mugabe castigated the MDC formations for seeking to delay the holding of elections to an extent of appealing to Sadc to reverse the Constitutional Court ruling ordering the holding of polls by July 31.
“Our courts had actually to command us to say you must have elections not later than July 31. The courts had to force us to go to elections. But even then, they thought they could go outside our country and appeal against the decision of our courts.
"Even lawyers and professors who should know better that the judgement of our Supreme Court is final and must be obeyed still wanted, for one reason or another, to get outsiders to reverse it. No outsider is allowed to interfere in a situation where our courts will have given a ruling. That is final.
"We are the people to decide what to do. Do we obey or disobey? That is why I obeyed and complied with that ruling or command of the courts and then I said the courts say not later than July, ok, to seek more time I will choose the last day of July and that will not be a violation,” he said.
President Mugabe added: “But others still said, ah, Mugabe did not consult us. Do I have to consult them? I am given the authority to make the proclamation I do not have to consult anyone.”
He said the court did not rule that President Mugabe in consultation with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara must make the proclamation.
“So, I made that proclamation. Still they ran with the proclamation to a Sadc meeting in Maputo thinking Sadc has the power to command us to do that which our courts say cannot be done,” President Mugabe said.
Thousands of people attended the colourful launch yesterday invoking memories of President Mugabe’s January 27 1980 homecoming from leading the liberation struggle in Mozambique that drew a crowd never before seen at any political gathering in Zimbabwe.
President Mugabe and other cadres were welcomed at Zimbabwe Grounds on January 27, 1980 by a crowd estimated at 1, 6 million by the Zanu-PF information and publicity department, 200 000 by BBC, 150 000 by the Rhodesian police and 1 million, with a safety margin of 25 percent, by people who said they arrived at the figure by enlarging aerial photographs and calculating crowd density.
Nkomo had also addressed a massive crowd at the same grounds on January 13, 1980.
The crowd was estimated at 120 000 by the Rhodesian police, with PF - Zapu information and publicity secretary Willie Musarurwa putting it at 300 000.
Labels: LINDIWE ZULU, SADC
posted by MrK @ 2:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home