(NEWZIMBABWE) Mugabe holds talks with Senegal leader
Refuelling stop ... The Air Zimbabwe B767 on the runway at Léopold Sédar Senghor Airport
24/09/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe made a previously unpublicised stop in Senegal on Saturday, on his way to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, New Zimbabwe.com has learnt.
Trudy Stevenson, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Senegal, said local newspapers had published “speculative articles” about Mugabe’s brief stop at the Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport in Dakar, most of which were not accurate.
“President Robert Mugabe met with his Senegalese counterpart President Macky Sall and Prime Minister Aminata Touré. Contrary to a lot of the speculative articles about the visit, it was to honour him,” Ambassador Stevenson said.
Mugabe – who left Harare on Friday night – met with the two leaders for 40 minutes early Saturday while his chartered Air Zimbabwe B767 was being refuelled for the final leg of the flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
During their meeting - also attended by Senegal's ministers of defence and interior - Ambassador Stevenson said Sall and Toure had congratulated Mugabe on his recent re-election for a new five-yer term.
Mugabe's re-election has been endorsed by the African Union and SADC, but Western countries have aligned themselves with claims by the opposition that the elections were marred by irregularitie despite the prevailing peace.
Labels: ROBERT MUGABE, SENEGAL
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Mugabe is a ‘walking history book’ – Ambassador Trudy Stevenson
This article was written by Our reporter on 23 May, at 23 : 53 PM
PRESIDENT Mugabe is a strong leader with phenomenal memory and still commands great respect from the international community, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Senegal, Ms Trudy Stevenson (MDC), said yesterday.
In an interview, Ms Stevenson described President Mugabe as a “walking history book”. “He is a strong leader who still commands enormous respect throughout the world.
“In Senegal, when I say to ‘the man in the street’ that I am from Zimbabwe, the response is invariably ‘Mugabe! I like your President!’ He is a very strong man.”
Ms Stevenson said President Mugabe was liked for his principled stance against Zimbabwe’s former colonisers.
“People like the fact that he still stands up to our former colonisers.
“As I have come to know him better, I have been struck by his interest in my family and my life, as well as his sense of humour and his phenomenal memory.
“I hope and pray that his recollections of pre-independence struggles and meetings, particularly on the rest of the continent, are captured for posterity. He is a walking history book!’’ said Ms Stevenson.
Turning to sanctions, Ms Stevenson said the embargo had outlived its usefulness and that the main political parties in Zimbabwe agreed that the sanctions should be removed.
“They have long outlived their sell-by date! All three parties to the GPA have long agreed with this, so it is not really useful for us to keep debating it among ourselves.
“We should rather spend our time and energy persuading countries that imposed sanctions to remove them,’’ she said.
Ms Stevenson said she had lost faith in the constitution-making process.
“From here, it looks very confused! It seems to have become very politicised, used as a campaign platform for the political parties.
“I doubt that true national consensus on what we want Zimbabwe to be can come out of this process in the near future.”
TH/TZG
Labels: AMBASSADOR, MDC, ROBERT MUGABE, SANCTIONS, SENEGAL
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Senegal offers land to Haitians
Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians could "return to their origin"
Senegal's president says he will offer free land and "repatriation" to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.
President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal.
"The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin," said Mr Wade's spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye.
Tuesday's earthquake killed tens of thousands and left many more homeless.
Buildings have been reduced to rubble, the distribution of aid is slow, and people have been flooding out of the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.
"Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land - even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come," Mr Bemba Ndiaye said.
"If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region."
The spokesman emphasised that if a region was given, it would be in a fertile part of the country rather than in its parched deserts, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Labels: HAITI, LAND, SENEGAL
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Senegal admits "money gift" to IMF official
Mon Oct 26, 2009 4:07pm GMT
DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal admitted Monday it gave a "money gift" to an official from the International Monetary Fund at the close of his three-year posting earlier this month, citing African tradition to offer goodbye presents.
"We in Africa have a tradition: when someone visits you, you give him a gift at departure," Senegal's Prime Minister Souleymane Ndene Ndiaye told state media.
The money, which local media said amounted to 100,000 euros, was returned within days by IMF representative Alex Segura, who had been an outspoken critic of the West African nation's budget process during his posting.
Local media has dubbed the affair "Seguragate" in a nod to the U.S. political scandal Watergate that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.
"What happened with Segura can't be labelled corruption. Mr Segura had ended his mission," Ndiaye said.
Senegal's government had initially denied giving the money.
The country's civil society has called for an independant investigation into the matter and the IMF also said it is continuing to establish all the facts.
The IMF last December approved a $75.6 million, one-year funding deal from its Exogenous Shocks Facility to mitigate the effects of last year's surge food and energy prices.
(Reporting by Diadie Ba; Editing by Richard Valdmanis)
Labels: CORRUPTION, IMF, SENEGAL
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Africa strong despite financial crisis, observes Senegalese minister
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Friday, November 07, 2008 3:47:32 AM
SENEGALESE commerce minister Mamadou Diop Decroix has said Africa is alive to the international financial crisis but remained strong.
In an interview here where he is leading an official Senegalese delegation to this year’s Havana International Trade Fair (FIHAV), Decroix said there was a paradox on the issue of the current global financial meltdown whose epicenter was the United States of America.
“Sub-Saharan Africa may not very much be concerned about this crisis because we simply are not part of world trade,” he said. “I mean we are not part of world affairs, we are not into that ground, although there could be some aftershocks to hit our economies.”
Decroix said African countries had been crying for space into international trade but to no avail.
He said as the situation stood today one could simply affirm that, “if things are bad we are still not there, but we will be touched by this crisis to a certain level.”
Decroix said Senegal was very interested in fostering strong economic and cultural relations with Cuba.
He said Senegal was interested in enjoying benefits from a various productive sectors of the Cuban economy.
Decroix said he met Cuban foreign trade minister Raul de la Nuez with whom he discussed mutual exchanges between Senegal and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
“We believe there are many opportunities in Cuba, particularly in medicines,” he said.
Decroix said Senegal was interested in Cuban diabetes and malaria drugs among other pharmaceutical products and prevention techniques.
“We discussed the Cuban energy saving experience which is very good,” he said.
Decroix said Senegal was also interested in Cuban cultural sector especially now that his country was preparing for an international cultural festival.
And Decroix said Senegal was still renegotiating the Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union.
He said Senegal and other ECOWAS member states still had some concerns on the EPAs.
“We are discussing this issue and maybe by June next year, as long as our European colleagues continue doing their best in taking into account our concerns, we shall sign,” said Decroix.
Labels: CUBA, FINANCIAL CRISIS, HAVANA INTERNTIONAL TRADE FAIR, SENEGAL
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