Mugabe, who was speaking at the launch of his campaign to retain power in a
run-off presidential election next month, promised he was waiting for McGee
to make “one more step wrong” before he orders the US envoy out of Zimbabwe.
“He says he fought in Vietnam, but fighting in Vietnam does not give him the
right to interfere in our domestic affairs. I am just waiting to see if he
makes one more step wrong. He will get out,” Mugabe said.
“As tall as he is, if he continues to do that I will kick him out of the
country,” added the veteran leader, whose 28-year grip on power received a
major knock when he was defeated in elections on March 29 by opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party also lost a parallel parliamentary poll to
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
The June 27 runoff election is being held after electoral authorities said
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in March but failed to garner more than 50
percent of the vote required to takeover power.
McGee has been a thorn in the flesh for Mugabe’s government, openly
criticizing political violence by state security agents and ZANU PF militia.
The violence, which broke out in many parts of Zimbabwe immediately it
became clear that Mugabe’s government had lost elections, has killed at
least 43 opposition supporters and displaced thousands others.
McGee raised the ire of his hosts two weeks ago when he led several Western
ambassadors on a tour of Mashonaland Central province, one of the worst
affected by violence.
The ambassadors and senior diplomats from Britain, European Union,
Netherlands and Japan visited victims of political violence at two hospitals
in the province but were later held for about an hour at a police road while
on their way back to Harare.
Political analysts say Tsvangirai starts as firm favourite to win the second
round ballot after garnering 47.8 percent against Mugabe’s 43.2 percent in
the first round election, although they point out that violence against
opposition supporters could effectively alter the political balance to
deliver victory to Mugabe in June.
Mugabe, in power since his country’s 1980 independence from Britain, vowed
to win the June ballot, saying his ZANU PF party was united in its quest to
remain in power.
The veteran leader rejected claims by Tsvangirai that the government plotted
to assassinate, while accusing the opposition leader of acting on the orders
of McGee.
Mugabe also promised to give land to Zimbabweans trapped by xenophobic
violence in neighbouring South Africa if they returned home.
“The land is still there even for those youngsters in South Africa who wish
to return home,” Mugabe said in his first public reaction to the violence
that has killed at least 50 foreigners, some of them Zimbabweans.
Ironically, most of the Zimbabweans who have flocked to South Africa over
the last decade say they fled political persecution by Mugabe or economic
hardships caused by his controversial policies.
Meanwhile Tsvangirai vowed to finish off Mugabe in the second round ballot,
saying Zimbabweans’ desire for change was too strong to be extinguished by
the ongoing campaign of violence and murder.
Tsvangirai told journalists in Harare, hours after his Saturday arrival from
South, that he was confident that voters would not be intimidated into
giving Mugabe another five-year term in office.
He said: “The regime believes that by creating a unbearable environment of
fear and brutality they will silence the people of Zimbabwe. But the people’
s desire for a truly democratic, unified, peaceful and prosperous country is
too strong.” – ZimOnline.
Post published in: News