HARARE – A top-ranking official of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF has publicly admitted that Mugabe is merely the “de facto” and not legally the Zimbabwean Head of State.
Zimbabwe’s former ambassador to China and a senior Mugabe aide Chris Mutsvangwa conceded Friday that Mugabe can only become Zimbabwe’s legitimate President when the pending Constitutional Amendment 19 Bill is passed into law.
Mutsvangwa is a prominent member of Zanu-PF’s media and publicity committee, which was formed to steer the party’s publicity campaign ahead of the disputed June 27 presidential election.
Mutsvangwa spoke as he defended Mugabe’s presence at a UN conference in Qatar to discuss the global financial situation.
Mugabe, whose legitimacy as President is fiercely challenged by his opponents back at home, is representing Zimbabwe at the conference, alongside other world leaders.
“Zimbabwe is part of the UN system,” Mutsvangwa told journalists at the Quill Club, Harare ’s press club on Friday evening.
“Somebody has got to be representing the country and in our case it is the one who is the de facto Head of State who will soon be a de jure Head of State courtesy of an agreement which the MDC has signed already.”
The statement by Mutsvangwa is a climb-down from Zanu-PF’s earlier stance that has sought to portray Mugabe as having duly won the June 27 election. The controversial election was immediately dismissed as a sham by African observers due to political intimidation and open abuse of electoral procedures by Zanu-PF.
Mutsvangwa, who has virtually sidelined veteran politician and Zanu-PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira, accused the MDC leadership of failing to stick to their own commitments.
“The MDC made Mugabe the Head of State in that agreement,” he said.
“We can’t have people who flip-flop as if they have got the memory of a duck. You have got to stick to what you have signed. You made Mugabe President; you made your own president the prime minister-designate. You have got to have the memory of an elephant - long.”
Mutsvangwa accused Tsvangirai of undiplomatic behaviour and of failure to appreciate he would soon become Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister.
“Tsvangirai is still trying to get used to the process of getting powerful,” he said, “He should be comporting himself as somebody who is about to enter high office of course under Mugabe as per his agreement.”
Mutsvanga, a former ZBC chief executive officer, lashed at former UN secretary general Dr Kofi Annan for his recent attempt to visit Zimbabwe to assess the ‘‘escalating humanitarian crisis’’ in the country.
Government last week barred a planned visit by Annan alongside former United States president Mr Jimmy Carter and Mozambican rights advocate Ms Graca Machel. Machel is the wife of Nelson Mandela.
The three belong to a group of former statesmen and prominent personalities known as the Global Elders.
Zimbabwe government officials suggested Annan was barred because he represented what they described as neo-colonial interests.
“He is an expatriate African who left Africa quite early (in his life),” said Mutsvangwa.
“That’s Annan. He spent a lot of time as a UN diplomat and his last and most important assignment in Africa was in Rwanda in 1994 and all that butchering went on.
“He was actually in charge of the UN peacekeepers and he made that country go through that horrid genocide.
“When he went into the United Nations, he never promoted even one African to become an important person at the United Nations.
“So I am talking of somebody whose history about Africa is at most sordid but probably very tenuous. Now he comes here masquerading as somebody who is a humanitarian. He allowed sanctions at the UN something he never condemned as secretary-general. Now he wants to come here to see the effects of those sanctions.”
Mutsvangwa accused Annan, a Ghanaian, of insincerity.
“He is a man looking for glory,” he said, “He is a man who wants to find a trusteeship in Africa at a later day. Let him go and seek for election in Ghana if he wants to become a ruler in Africa.”
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