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Zimbabwe -- Mugabe hinted retirement: Mbeki -- Zanu-PF: Mugabe is not going anywhere
Daily News (Zim) and Independent Online (SA) | April 29, 2003

Posted on 4/29/2003, 1:04:52 PM by Clive

From the Daily News:

Mugabe hinted retirement: Mbeki

4/29/03 7:13:33 AM (GMT +2)

By Brian Mangwende Chief Reporter

PRESIDENT Mugabe has in the past indicated to his South African counterpart, Thabo Mbeki, that he was willing to step down as consensus is forming among regional and international leaders that he has become a liability and a threat to regional stability.

Bheki Khumalo, Mbeki’s spokesman, yesterday said the South African President said this when he was reacting in Pretoria to media reports that Mugabe was ready to step down.

According to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Mbeki said Mugabe had said that before, in his presence. Khumalo said: “The President was reacting to media reports and he never went beyond that.”

However, Khumalo said that he was unaware of any personal communication in which Mbeki had asked Mugabe to relinquish power.

“If a President wants to step down, the decision is his and his alone,” Khumalo said. “Besides, if the two had communicated at a personal level on that one, then I don’t think that will be done through the Press.”

SABC reported that Mbeki said he was sure that Zanu PF had been engaged in the process of renewing its leadership. “We want to wait for them to finish that process before we can take matters up,” Mbeki was quoted as saying. John Nkomo, Zanu PF’s national chairman, and Nathan Shamuyarira, the ruling party’s spokesman, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In November 2000, when some commercial farmers were murdered and some driven off their properties under the controversial land reform programme, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo reportedly urged Mugabe to step down to avoid more bloodshed.

Last month, Obasanjo made a similar statement during an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times of London, saying that it would be wise for Mugabe, 79, to step down as leader of Zimbabwe.

“It’s entirely up to him, but obviously he knows he has to work out a succession,” Obasanjo, 66, said. “I don’t need to tell him, but if I say I am thinking about my succession, that’s an indication that I think he should think of his. “In my part of the world, there are many ways you can tell a man to go to hell.”

In an interview on ZBC/TV last week to mark 23 years of Zimbabwe’s independence, Mugabe hinted that he was willing to step down after the land redistribution exercise had been completed.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of Parliament’s name is being touted around as Mugabe’s choice of successor, but this has not gone down well with the ruling party’s stalwarts.

Mnangagwa is Zanu PF’s secretary for administration. He was appointed by Mugabe following his defeat in the June 2000 parliamentary election by the MDC’s Blessing Chebundo in Kwekwe.

And this from Independent Online

Zanu-PF: Mugabe is not going anywhere

April 29 2003 at 01:24PM

Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe does not intend to leave office before his current term ends in 2008, his government has said, quashing mounting speculation that the long-time leader is on the way out.

"President Robert Mugabe has not indicated a wish to leave office now or at any other time before the expiry of his term," a statement from the information and publicity department in Mugabe's office read.

Mugabe, who has been in power in the southern African country for 23 years since its independence from Britain in 1980, hinted last week that he was nearing the time to retire.

In an interview with Zimbabwean state television on April 21, the 79-year-old responded to a question on when he would step down by saying that he was "getting to a stage" when retirement might be on the cards.

However, the information department said all Mugabe was trying to do in the interview was stir national debate on a variety of issues.

"All the president did was to invite national debate on a range of national questions, including that of succession," read the statement.

There has been mounting speculation in recent months that several officials within the ruling Zanu-PF were jostling to succeed Mugabe should he step down.

Mugabe had said previously that he would leave office only after his government has completed the controversial land reform programme that has seen white-owned land redistributed among new black farmers.

The government has said that "sensational media reports" about Mugabe's retirement had been inspired by British newspapers that defended white colonial interests.

It further said the "patently mistaken and self-serving" reports were meant to create an atmosphere of uncertainty and division in the troubled country, battered by sky-high inflation, rampant unemployment and famine caused by drought and the chaotic land reforms.

Mugabe retained power in the March 2002 elections which have been disputed by the opposition, decrying them as rigged and violence-ridden.

The United States this month urged Zimbabwe's neighbours to step up pressure on Mugabe to hand power to a transitional government and pave the way for new elections.

But Mugabe's government said a proposed visit to Zimbabwe by presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Bakili Muluzi of Malawi was just for them to "update themselves" on developments in the country.

The government said the trio "expressed an interest in paying a visit to the country in order to update themselves on our situation in the context of their protracted mediation efforts between Zimbabwe and Britain.

"This proposed visit is predicated on a firm understanding that the people of Zimbabwe held elections that were recognised by the whole of Africa as a legimitate expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people," it said.

The government also dismissed local media reports that there were plans for the resumption of talks between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the main opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Talks between the two parties aimed at finding a solution to the country's political impasse following the 2002 election and its economic and humanitarian crises broke down last May, having only succeeded in drafting an agenda.

"There is no agenda for talks with the opposition. Zanu-PF and its government will not dabble in any political misadventures whose outcome seeks to temper and attenuate, let alone overthrow the will of the people of Zimbabwe, as expressed through a popular vote," Mugabe's government's statement insisted. - Sapa-AFP


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: africawatch; zimbabwe
Looks like a Mutt and Jeff routine is going on.

How long is Mbeki going to put up with Mugabe making him look like an idiot?

1 posted on 4/29/2003, 1:04:53 PM by Clive
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To: *AfricaWatch; Cincinatus' Wife; sarcasm; Travis McGee; happygrl; Byron_the_Aussie; robnoel; ...
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2 posted on 4/29/2003, 1:05:13 PM by Clive
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