Mugabe and the usual Heroes Day rant


By Violet Gonda
08 August 2005

People who go to Heroes Acre in the capital to commemorate those who died in Zimbabwe's war of independence can almost predict what Robert Mugabe will say on those occasions. It has been the same rhetoric ever since a viable opposition emerged 5 years ago. Monday was no different.

Mugabe ranted against the MDC, Tony Blair and the West. In 2004 his focus was the elections which he called the "Blair Elections". This year it was the same old rhetoric: "The man who needs to be spoken to in order to see reason resides at No. 10 Downing Street ... that's the man to speak to. Those in Harvest House, Harare, are no more than his stooges and puppets. We would rather speak to the principal who manipulates the puppets." Our Harare Correspondent who watched the live commemorations on television said the 81 year old dictator also put his stamp of approval and support on the controversial clean up exercise "Operation Murambatsvina" which was recently condemned as a "disastrous venture" by a United Nations envoy. It also appeared, although he didn't mention names, that he was snubbing Thabo Mbeki's so called conditions on the loan to Zimbabwe. Observers say Mugabe's Heroes Day speech suggested that political conditions are unacceptable.