Mugabe 'still fighting fit'

2003-06-08 22:12

Cape Town - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has dismissed speculation that he means to retire in the near future, saying he is still fighting fit.

"I am for a fight, I am getting younger as I told you, and I still can punch," he said in an interview recorded earlier this week and broadcast by SABC television on Sunday.

He also said the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's "final push" to topple his government - which was checked by his security forces - had failed totally.

"It was just some drama for the G8 which they wanted, but a drama in which the main characters have failed to impress anyone," Mugabe said.

Asked about the possibility of talks with the MDC, he said his government had already said it wanted dialogue "but it must be meaningful dialogue".

'Both ways'

Referring to the MDC's court challenge to the legitimacy of his re-election as president last year, he said there could be no dialogue on issues that were still pending in court.

"We have said either you withdraw the case in court regarding the legitimacy of my government, the legitimacy of myself, or you wait until the court has decided on the issues that you have placed before the judges. You can't have it both ways."

The MDC, he said, wanted to dialogue with the British and the Americans, and did not look at the need for Zimbabweans to talk with each other in a realistic way to find a solution to their problems.

"We are open on that one, yes, certainly, and we remain open. We have said so to our mediators [Nigerian] President Obasanjo and President Mbeki and they have been helping us immensely on this subject.

"But of course their appeal to the MDC not to resort to mass action, not to resort to violence has not yielded fruit. But we ask them to continue to appeal to them.

"It's sad when we are forced as government to have to use teargas against our youth who are being misled. But we have to do it in the interests of peace and security. We don't want to make our people suffer."

Retire

Mugabe, who is 79, said that as he got "younger and younger" he was attracted by the prospect of retirement.

However, he did not want to retire in a situation where people were disunited and where certain objectives had not been achieved.

"The succession issue should be discussed in a harmonious way, openly, and if it points the way forward well and good, but if it is going to cause division, as it is tending to do at the moment, then one says no to it."

He said it would be nonsensical for him to quit only a year after re-election.

He also rejected speculation that his government had mismanaged Zimbabwe's economy, and blamed the country's woes on recurrent drought and sanctions.

- SAPA