Mugabe sidesteps election defeat during independence speech

By Tichaona Sibanda
18 April 2008

Robert Mugabe, whose Zanu-PF party lost it’s majority in parliament to the MDC, used his Independence Day speech to attack the Morgan Tsvangirai led party and the British Government.

The 84 year-old leader, still eager to cling on to power despite the electoral defeat to the MDC, described the British Government as ‘thieves trying to steal our country.’ He described the MDC as ‘British puppets’ vowing once again that ‘Zimbabwe will never be a colony again.’ The MDC accuse Mugabe of being a ‘puppet’ of his own military commanders.

So there was absolutely nothing new in Mugabe’s speech.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said Mugabe completely sidestepped the issue most Zimbabweans are anxious to know - the outcome of the presidential election.

‘All he said was to thank the people for the peaceful way they conducted themselves during the poll and thanking observers for a job well done. He steered clear of the contentious issue of the results,’ Muchemwa said.