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Reuters
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe celebrates his birthday this week.
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Monday that he reserves the right to disregard efforts by South African President Jacob Zuma to mediate disputes in the nation's troubled coalition government.
Mugabe also repeated his pledge to hold elections this year, even if it means defying Zuma and other regional leaders who say new polls should be held only after a new democratic constitution is in place.
“This year we must have elections, they must take place with or without a new constitution,” Mugabe said in interviews aired by the state broadcaster on the eve of his 88th birthday.
He said he held sufficient powers to announce a 2012 election date. “And I will. If there are those who don't want an election, they are free not to go to polls,” Mugabe said.
Zuma is tasked by the Southern Africa Development Community to help steer Zimbabwe toward free and fair elections to end the three-year power sharing deal the regional bloc brokered after violent elections in 2008. Mugabe is in the power-sharing deal with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a former opposition leader.
On state television, Mugabe described the often-delayed rewriting of the constitution as flawed and manipulated by his opponents. He said he was not afraid of angering the region and facing isolation.
“We will tell SADC what the problem is. SADC cannot tell us to continue with an exercise that is futile,” he said.
His party would withdraw from the coalition “if others continue to play dirty tricks that we can't put up with any more... then we return to the existing constitution”, which was adopted after independence in 1980.
Mugabe, speaking on television and radio in separate interviews of 90 minutes each, said he was “as fit as a fiddle” despite what some critics have said. In a departure from usual practice, he spoke to state radio in the local Shona language targeting mass listeners.
“Apparently I have died many times. I have actually beaten Jesus Christ because he only died once,” he told state radio.
He told the television audience, speaking in English, that it would be up to Zimbabweans as a whole to choose his successor “when I say I am retiring”.
“At this age, I can still go some distance, can't I?” he added.
He put his longevity down to rising at 5am for a daily exercise routine, abstinence from alcohol and tobacco and a balanced diet.
“There are things one must do for oneself. Don't drink at all, don't smoke, you must exercise and eat vegetables and fruit,” he said. - Sapa-AP
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Peter Macklyn, wrote
Well said bobsled, I think you hit the the nail spot on. These uneducated fools like afroseed are typical of what Africa has by the millions. They constantly bite the hand that feeds them and in the same breath curse them thinking thet because the west helped them when they bwere starving it means the west wants to take over again. The last thing the west would want to do is take over Africa that this sorry lot has destroyed. When the west were here everything worked and there were no wars to talk of, look at the continent now that it's run by the Chinese who don't give anything away for nothing. Unfortunately there are too many uneducated fools like afroseed living on the continent so it will never come right. I only hope the west will get tired of being called names and stop the aid, then you will see the begging bowels lining up because "their Excellency's" couldn't give a damn about their own people and if half of them died that would be less to contend with. A zpf minister even said those that don't support mugabe can go and die as far as he was concerned, that's how they think.
bobsled, wrote
@AfroSeed: If “His Excellency” (as all banana republic presidents enjoy being called) is what you regard as the pinnacle of your type, then let him supply all your needs, and stop holding out your begging bowls to the West while at the same time insulting us. It suits you to milk your “victim” status for as long as you can, because let's face it, you want everything for free and hate working for anything. That's the way it's always been with you. Look at the joke that is Africa. Are you proud? And you, who hadn't yet discovered the wheel when we arrived, presume to lecture us, who have walked on the moon and put satellites in space? It just demonstrates what hard work can achieve. So what is the reason your kids are walking around with flies in their nostrils? Is it because of the evil West, your lack of a work ethic, or perhaps something else? I hope that puts things in perspective...
Peter Macklyn, wrote
He has a big mouth (like malema) to say things like that about the President of the country who we rely on to carry out our imports and exports. All Zuma has to do is close the border it worked with Rhodesia. Also afroseed (bootlicker) wake up it's you who support murderers like gaddafi that need to be educated, get a life fool.
AfroSeed, wrote
@jonson-Its dumbest of you to say His Excellence Dr Robert Gabriel Mugabe does not understand democracy-I cant waste my time educating you.This West of yours is collapsing,yes they must stop giving aid to Africa...Yes nobody owes African anything except the cruel Westerners who have just brutally murdered Col.Muamar Gaddafi.Thanks God Im an African.
AfroSeed, wrote
Long live Comrade Bob Long Live.Yes fire Zuma please.Im glad youre starting to pronounce the word "retire"however not now,we r still faced by the likes of Mr Mulder in the region.
AfroSeed, wrote
Long live Comrade Bob Long Live.Yes fire Zuma please.Im glad youre starting to pronounce the word "retire"however not now,we r still faced by the likes of Mr Mulder in the region.
jonson, wrote
Intresting, so what Mugabe is saying is that he'll keep the mediator as long as the mediator mediates in his favour. Another excample of a dumb African leader that doesn't understand democracy. The more one thinks about it, the more one relaises that Africans should go back to their tribal culture where there are no elections, no rights, and no respect for other tribes' rights to coexist. The tribal system is the only system Africans understand. The voters in RSA have the same distorted idea of democracy where they vote for the same party all the time whether the party delivers or not. If the West wants to be useful, they should stop giving Africa aid and start helping them to transition back into their tribal system which is the only system they're capable of survivng under. If that fails, leave them to their own fate. Nobody owes Africa anything.
kurt, wrote
mark longhurst, wrote
very few people can agree with mugabe on anything -but sacking Zuma?-yes-he like Mbeki lacks the Kahunas to do what africa really needs -discipline -so much dirty water here with the anc protecting mugabe -how can you stand by and watch Zim get pirated by a few chefs.
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