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Tag: Mugabe

  • ‘Name your successor,’ wife tells ageing Mugabe

    ‘Name your successor,’ wife tells ageing Mugabe

    First Lady Grace Mugabe of Zimbabwe on Thursday challenged her president husband Robert to name his preferred successor to end deepening divisions over the future leadership of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

    Africa’s oldest leader, Mugabe, 93, has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980 but has insisted that ZANU-PF, and not him, will choose his eventual successor when the time comes.

    However, at a meeting of ZANU-PF’s women’s wing in Harare, Grace Mugabe contradicted the veteran leader, who also attended the meeting, saying he should name a successor.

    “The First Lady and Zanu-PF Secretary for Women’s Affairs have challenged the President to name his successor saying this has been the trend in other countries.

    “The First Lady said there is nothing wrong with Mugabe naming his successor, saying the move will enable all members to rally behind one candidate,’’ ZBC said.

    However, Mugabe did not speak at the meeting.

    Fighting over leadership of a post-Mugabe ZANU-PF has intensified in the last three years, with two distinct camps emerging, one supporting Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the other rooting for Grace Mugabe.

    Mugabe is ZANU-PF’s presidential candidate for the 2018 election, his last under the constitution.

    He will be 99 years if he wins and completes the five-year term.

    According to the constitution, elections are due after July 21, 2018.

    However, political analysts said Mugabe could call for an early vote, citing his frail health, and that he may want to take advantage of divisions within opposition ranks.

    Zimbabwe has since independence always held elections in March, with the exception of 2000 and 2013, both years when elections were delayed by a constitutional referendum.

  • Mugabe in Singapore for medical treatment

    Mugabe in Singapore for medical treatment

    Zimbabwe’s 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe is in Singapore for a “routine medical check-up”, state media reported Sunday.

    “President Mugabe on Friday left the country for Singapore for a routine medical check-up,” the Sunday Mail newspaper reported.

    The paper said the veteran ruler is expected back in Zimbabwe midweek.

    Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Chris Mushohwe told the newspaper Mugabe was in Singapore but declined to confirm the reason for the visit.

    The ruling ZANU-PF party said on Saturday it had cancelled a youth rally scheduled for July 14 due to be attended by the president because he would be out of the country.

    Charamba and Mushohwe did not respond to calls and messages to their phones for comment.

    Despite growing concerns about his health, Mugabe has taken more than ten trips abroad this year and wants to seek another five-year term in office in 2018.

    He has ruled the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980.

    The government has denied he falls asleep in meetings, saying in response to television footage appearing to show him doing so that he is resting his eyes.

    Mugabe has racked up more than 200,000 air miles since the start of 2016. He spent $53 million on foreign trips last year, more than double the initial budget of $23 million, according to government data.

    Reuters

  • Mugabe donates $1m to AU Foundation

    Mugabe donates $1m to AU Foundation

    President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe on Monday delivered a one million U.S. dollars check to the African Union (AU) Foundation, a “humble gesture” to help push the regional block toward financial independence.

    Mugabe made the donation during the opening of the 29th AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

    He was fulfilling a pledge made during his tenure as rotating AU chairman, at the 25th AU summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    Handing over the check, Mugabe said the “modest” donation “demonstrates what is possible when we apply our mind to the most urgent task before us, … of funding our union and in particular Agenda 2063.”

    Launched in January 2015, the AU Foundation is tasked with finding new ways of generating domestic resources to fund African development programs and support Agenda 2063, an ambitious blueprint for future development of the continent.

    Mugabe said funding independence is vital to Africa’s future.

    “Unless and until we can fund our own programs, the African Union will not be our own,” he said, referring to a decision made in 2016 at the 27th AU summit to eventually be able to finance 100 percent of its operational budget, 75 per cent of its programmes budget, and 25 per cent of its peacekeeping budget.

    The decision requires that member countries contribute 0.2 per cent of their import levy to AU coffers.

    Mugabe said: “It is never going to be easy to wean ourselves from the ‘donor-dependency syndrome,’ but we need to forge ahead for our sake and that of our future generations.

    “This modest contribution… is a symbolic step in that direction.

    “Let us build our continent brick by brick, stone by stone.”

    According to Moussa Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, the 0.2-per cent import levy requirement, originally scheduled to come into effect in January 2017, has yet to be fully complied by all member countries.

    The AU hopes to be able to meet all its operational funding needs by the year 2022.

     

     

     

    (Xinhua/NAN)

     

  • Mugabe’s former minister to challenge him in 2018 presidential poll

    Mugabe’s former minister to challenge him in 2018 presidential poll

    Nkosana Moyo, former Industry and International Trade Minister, in Zimbabwe on Thursday launched a political party in a bid to contest for 2018 presidency, news agency reported on Thursday.

    Moyo is a former minister in President Robert Mugabe’s government.

    He told journalists that his decision to contest in the polls followed pressure from many quarters.

    “I have come to the conclusion that I must heed the call to run for the office of president of Zimbabwe, this call is coming from diverse Zimbabweans,’’ Moyo said when he launched his Alliance for the People’s Agenda Party.

    Moyo resigned from his post under protest in 2001 and left for South Africa.

    He has accused Mugabe’s government of lack of vision, while Mugabe called him a coward.

    Moyo said that his party would not join the proposed coalition of opposition political parties to fight Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF party in 2018 polls.

    “Combining things does not always give you the result you expect,’’ he said.

    Moyo also distanced himself from ZANU-PF, saying he had never been its member.

    He promised to serve only one term if he wins the presidency.

    Zimbabwe’s new constitution adopted in 2013 limits the presidential term to two five-year terms.

    ZANU-PF has already endorsed Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980 and would be 94 in 2018, as its presidential candidate for the 2018 polls.

     

     

    (Xinhua/NAN)

  • Mugabe flown to Singapore for urgent medical check-up

    Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, has been flown to Singapore for urgent medical attention, reports say.

    Vice President, Phelekezela Mphoko, is reported to have taken over as acting president.

    State-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation however said that Mugabe travelled to Singapore for official engagement.

    The ZBC claim contradicts the government-owned Herald, which reported that the president travelled to Singapore for “routine medical check-up.”

    He is expected back in Zimbabwe on May 13, reports say.

  • Party, not me will determine successor, Mugabe assures Zimbabweans

    President Robert Mugabe has assured Zimbabweans that the ruling party would decide whom to succeed him in office.

    The president who marked his birthday on Saturday (today) said he will not impose his successor on the people.

    He said if the ruling ZANU-PF party felt he should retire, it would hold an extraordinary congress to choose a new leader.

    The world’s oldest leader, who turned 93 this week, has maintained a tight grip on power in Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

    He is due to stand for re-election next year and says ZANU-PF has no viable alternative candidates.

    Mugabe was joined by thousands of supporters to celebrate his birthday at a school in Matobo, just a short distance from the grave of colonialist Cecil John Rhodes.

    Matobo is one of the areas that suffered heavy casualties during the 1980s crackdown by an elite North Korean-trained brigade against rebels loyal to Joshua Nkomo, Mugabe’s then rival.

    Rights groups said that 20,000 civilians died during the so-called Gukurahundi offensive.

    Rhodes was an imperialist, businessman and politician who played a dominant role in Southern Africa in the late 19th century, driving the annexation of vast swathes of land.

    According to the report, some people are requesting that the president should choose a successor before he retired.

    “Others are saying ‘President, choose a successor before you retire.

    “Is that not imposition, me imposing someone on the party, No, I don’t want that.

    “This is an issue for the congress to choose, we can have an extraordinary congress if the president retires but you said I should be your candidate in the next election,” Mugabe said.

    Critics said Mugabe’s policies, like the seizure of white-owned farms for blacks and his black economic empowerment drive have ruined the once promising country.

     

    NAN

  • Mugabe marks 93rd birthday in style

    President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe on Saturday celebrated his 93rd birthday party in a style.

    The president however pledges to remain in power despite growing sings of frailty.

    The annual party cost up to $1 million (0.9 million euros) including a multi-course feast and vast birthday cakes, putting many Zimbabweans in a state of aggression as the country endures severe food shortages.

    Mugabe, one of African longest serving leaders in an interview with state television ZBC-TV also commended President Donald Trump of America brand of nationalism.

    “When it comes to Donald Trump, on the one hand talking of American nationalism … America for Americans … on that we agree: Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans,” he said.

    Mugabe said he hoped that Trump might review the sanction imposed on the Southern African country by America and its allies in 2003 over alleged violations of human rights and vote rigging.

    “We are just now under sanctions imposed not by Donald Trump, but by Obama. What arrogance is that?” he said.

    He further disclosed that he never wanted Hillary Clinton to make it to the white house.

    Critics have accused Mugabe of putting Africa’s most promising economies, Zimbabwe into a serious financial mess through wrong policies such as the collection of farm lands from white minority in the country and printing of currency.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Mugabe, a former rebel leader, took power after independence in 1980.

  • Mugabe turns 93, vows to rule on

    Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe celebrates his 93rd birthday on Tuesday amid growing concerns over his failing health.

    Mugabe who has ruled out retiring soon, said officials of the ruling party, ZANU-PF believe there is no “acceptable” alternative.

    “The call to step down must come from my party … In such circumstances, I will step down,” the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying in an interview aired yesterday.

    “They want me to stand for elections … If I feel that I can’t do it any more, I will say so to my party so that they relieve me. But for now, I think I can’t say so,” he said. “The majority of the people feel that there is no replacement, a successor who to them is acceptable.

    Speaks on corruption

    Mugabe said rumour-mongers were merely targeting “big fish” in his administration.

    The world’s oldest leader said he would act if shown evidence even though graft scandals involving ministers and even members of his own family regularly feature in local newspapers.

    “I think the big fish; more of it has been talk, talk and talk.

    “People have not come out and actually said here is a case against a big fish “or are people afraid to come out and even come to us and say ‘this one is stealing so much, investigate the person.

    “If there is evidence, we will pursue that evidence and certainly we will deal with those persons,” Mugabe said.

    In spite the slew of scandals involving state tenders and contracts reported in Zimbabwe’s free-wheeling private media, investigations are rare and arrests even rarer.

    The anti-corruption commission is currently fighting the higher education minister and his deputy, who are accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a state fund.
    However, they denied the charges.

    Parliament has also penned several reports recommending investigations into irregular tender allocations, including at several state-owned firms.
    The reports have been ignored.

    Transparency International said in October Zimbabwe ranked poorly on corruption and was losing at least one billion dollars annually to graft, with police and local government officials among the worst offenders.

     

  • if Mugabe dies, his corpse will still contest, win next year election – wife

    Grace, the wife of Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe, has expressed confidence over the popularity of her 92-year-old husband in the country, stressing that even as a corpse in the next year’s poll, Mugabe could win the election.

    She made the observation while addressing a rally of the governing Zanu-PF party in Buhera, south-east of the capital Harare.

    Mrs Mugabe who has often professed her undying loyalty to her husband, said ‘’one day when God decides that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot paper,”

    “You will see people voting for Mugabe as a corpse. I am seriously telling you, just to show people how people love their president.”

    Mr Mugabe has governed Zimbabwe since the end of white-majority rule in 1980 following a bitterly fought war.

    President Mugabe has been backed by his party to stand again in the next years election but recently cut back on his public engagements.