President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has taken-over the Chairmanship of the 15 member Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional grouping at the 34th Heads of State and Government Summit which opened here today.
And President Mugabe has condemned the western world for perpetrating what he described as the most brutal demonstration of man’s inhumanity to man by keeping silent on the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip.
Meanwhile, President Mugabe has thanked SADC for standing by his country at a time when his government faced serious challenges due to economic sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) and the West.
President Mugabe has also warned that the over-reliance on the generosity and goodwill of SADC cooperating partners compromises the ownership and sustainability of the regional bodies programmes.
He added that the member states cannot proudly claim to be owners of the organization when close to 60 percent of the programmes are externally funded.
In his acceptance speech as the new SADC chairman taking over from Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika, President Mugabe told the Summit that it would be remiss of him not to talk about the recent brutalities that have been meted out against the Palestinian people.
President Mugabe said the western world which claims high moral ground on issues of human rights and the sanctity of life have looked with moral and academic indifference at the attack on Gaza while the Israeli army continues to butcher innocent women and children all under the guise of fighting terrorists.
“ This is the most brutal demonstration of man’s inhumanity to man, and it is criminal for the world to keep silent in the wake of such crimes against humanity’, said Mr Mugabe.
President Mugabe wondered whether the silence on the Gaza attacks by the western world were on the assumption that the Palestinian children who have died in the bombings would be future terrorists or that the women casualties would give birth to future terrorists.
And President Mugabe, whose country last hosted a SADC Summit 25 years ago, says Zimbabwe continues to undergo hurting economic sanctions imposed by the European Union and the West describing the them as illegal while the effects are debilitating to the economy and the people of Zimbabwe.
He thanked SADC for consistently calling for the removal of the EU and Western illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe adding that without the support of the regional grouping Zimbabwe would not standing on its feet today.
“we will remain eternally grateful for that…I say, once again, thank you SADC”, said President Mugabe.
President Mugabe also congratulated South Africa and Malawi for holding peaceful democratic elections earlier this year and that the regional body was optimistic that its three other members, Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique slated to go for Presidential polls later in 2014 will also abide by the SADC Principles and Guidelines governing democratic elections.
He also commended Madagascar for holding peaceful elections held in 2013 following a long period of political turmoil that saw the usurping of power from a sitting government by insurgents.
This led to the Indian Ocean Island country to be suspended from SADC for five years but successfully swore-in Hery Rajaonarimampianina who gave his maiden speech as President of that country during the official opening of the Summit today.
The theme for the 34th SADC Heads of State is ‘’SADC Strategy for Economic Transformation: Leveraging the Region’s Diverse Resources for Sustainable Economic and Social Development through Beneficiation and Value Addition”.
WOW! VICT TOWN LOOKS LIKE ONE OF THE GERMANY TOWNS AND BY FAR BETTER THAN LIVINGSTONE. OUR STRUCTURE DESIGNERS- IS THAT ALL THEY LEARNT DESIGNING BUILDINGS SUCH AS IN THE TOWN CENTRE OF LIVINGSTONE TOWN? IT’S SAD TO HAVE SUCH ARCHITECTS WITH ONLY SUCH KNOWLEDGE FOR DESIGNING PIG STILES. I AM AMAZED WITH VICT TOWN IN ZIMBABWE.
Have you heard of the Capslock key? It helps!!!
This near the end of his lifespan so called president of Zimbabwe is a hypocrite. He will be going to hell that’s a fact!
That pic is not Vic Falls, may be Harare or elsewhere for that matter! There is no such building in Vic Falls. I was there not long ago and disappointed with its appearance. The airport is scrappy and half the street lights don’t work. From the top floor of Elephant Hills hotel in VF, Livingstone appeared more of a town at night than VF. Thanks to the rehabs prior to the 2013 WTO meeting.
I have also lodged at Kingdom hotel and other lodges in the dusty resort town before. If Livingstone can keep the filth away, it should remain markedly better than VF …
Typing in all caps is Internet code for shouting, and it is rude. Typing in all caps is a lazy way of yelling—a crutch for the angry and inarticulate, The “caps lock” key makes it unreasonably easy for us to be rude (even, sometimes, inadvertently).
Our Governments, current and past have not been serious with Livingstone which could be a major source of income. It was one of the best places to invest money in because the return on investment is very high. Building world class malls, world class amusements parks, world class hospitals with health insurance, world class hotels, mansions, a facelift of the whole town, major highways and architecture , Zambia has a lot to learn from Dubai.
@Peter, This pic of Mugabe and his aide was taken in Addis at the AU heads of state summit last year.
This is not Falls Town, as I was there 2 weeks ago. Livingstone is far much better than Falls Town.
I bet that shot was taken in Addis, more like the African Union building! That must be an Amharic babe with her brother right behind keeping an eye on Bob …
Ok I can see Mugabe in the picture but where is MUGAGE? Who is this MUGAGE fella? Is he a new African leader?
More like gag him.
I’m just looking at the fine lady
Look, as Mugabe Ages his name changes to Mug age. Get it?
Uncle Bob is wasting his breath preaching about dependence on foreign aid to these lazy useless African leaders who are fresh from Washington where they were boot-licking the tool called Obama….the Great Thomas Sankara tried in vain to teach these obtuse leaders at the then OAU through his anti imperialistic policies and speeches about self distractive nature of foreign aid.Our leaders are doing the selfsame thing again with their newly found natural resources.
jay jay, i couldnt agree with you more my brother. It reminds me of a scene in Roots:the mini series where fiddler dies and Kunta cries out and says; “now you know what it is to be free, you now understand what i mean when i say freedom”. it seems most africans born in this system of world governance where they are controlled,manipulated, educated by west seem content with the status quo, because they have never known what it is to be free,being all african;culture wise,governance,education,language etc. this is why unlike our forefathers and their fathers before fought to rid themselves of white rule while we their children strive everyday to be like the whites.We speak,write white language,damn it, we even call our children white names ati kenneth,frederick,levy,michael.its a pity!!!
fiddler never understood why kunta was always trying to run away from the slave master even against all odds. to fiddler he couldnt place an importance on why freedom was so important except maybe for a few incentives here and there. But kunta understood for he had lived a free life before and it didnt matter to him if he had little food or was cold when he ran away, because freedom was much more important. Africans today need to wake up. African consciousness is the only way to try and reconnect us to the way we lived before the arrival of the white settlers, but alas our own brothers and sisters cant see this because they would rather have a few dollars in their pocket and just get by than going against the odds just to have full freedom.Wake up ye mighty race,get off your knees
The theme is good but gosh! its tooo loong. Why not simply say “Leveraging the Region’s Diverse Resources through Value Addition”. Anyone with average IQ will understand that it is for economic and social development, that it has to be sustainable, and that there has to be mutual benefit among all stakeholders. So why labour the obvious and overload it all in one sentence? It is so long one has to read it twice at least to understand it. There is a saying that concepts that work are those that are inherently easy to understand. So, cut it down.
2.) In terms of value addition, For Zambia, lets forge beyond just digging and exporting our Copper, but seriously begin incentive schemes for small and medium enterprises –SME- as well as big multinational companies that can make …cont’d
Cont’d….can make things locally or within the region using copper as one of the raw materials, and then export. This will create much needed jobs locally, instead of far way in China or Europe as is the case now. E.g. manufacturing Circuit boards, sim cards, domestic switches, industrial switch gears, etc.. etc…
The gathering was not for average minds
You are right Peter. The gathering was for ‘below average’ minds.
Cactus we agree! But Scott said a week ago that he thinks countries are different in cultures, so what one can do in China, may not work in Zambia. So Zambians can’t produce SIMs from our copper because he and his cabinet of hopeless Africans would rather continue borrowing and just servicing loans! Mugabe’s point about the 60% is right. It’s not about education, they just won’t listen and are not creative enough.
Seriously, this mad person has ruined his own country and now he is allowed to try and ruin other SADC countries?? Who let him in the door?
Mugabe,Mobutu,Mubarak ,Moi ,Museveni,Muluzi ,Mbasogo,Mengistu….Sata….oh, Sata has broken the chain of really bad leaders whose names start with “M’ Likewise they should remove the “C” from SADC to make it a really SAD club of dictators and clueless leaders led by Mugabe.
His other name is ‘Michael’.
The old fool has nothing new to offer, African leaders are really shameless failures.
The problem for President Mugabe is that too many countries are no longer run by a Liberation Movement.
The land reform in Zimbabwe is real, it has redistributed land to hundreds of thousands of families, and the tobacco industry has recovered in spite of a decade of economic sanctions and the destruction of the national currency through those sanctions. The harvest this year is 214 million kilograms, produce by over 80,000 farmers.
The myths have been shattered. Africans can grow tobacco better than the ‘white farmers’/giant land owners.
And it is the ZANU-PF and President Mugabe who have pushed forward this policy.
Ba uzeee. Ask those who attended Lancaster talks who the real Bob is. Baume abena Mugabe. Only those who were not there talk shit. Ever heard KK say crap about Bob????
Kindly correct your headline. It’s “Mugabe” not “Mugage”
this is not a president he is a dictator u wonder what else he still wants .the problem why he does not feel ashamed is that other SADC leaders also seem to enjoy his company.Pliz Mugabe go and rest u had enough of your time .
Ndibamuna aba! God be with you Mr. President.