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Mugabe: MDC must help
11/06/2007 21:58 - (SA)
Harare - President Robert Mugabe has reportedly made a rare gesture of acknowledgement to the opposition, saying despite political differences with his government, they remained Zimbabweans.
Mugabe frequently uses public occasions to lambaste the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which he calls
a puppet of former colonial power Britain and has vowed its
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, will never rule the country.
Mugabe - who presided over the distribution of
agriculture machinery to farmers as part of a drive to mechanise
the agricultural sector - departed from criticising his local
opponents, urging them to help develop the country.
He said to applause: "We're happy they are here ... and they are part of us in the entity we call the nation and no politics can ever make them alien.
"And therefore that realisation is very important that there must be occasions we must be together. And after all we eat
together, don't we?" said Mugabe, sounding jovial.
He defended his government's land reforms, a major point of difference with the MDC, which says top government and ruling ZANU-PF officials have benefited from the land seizures.
The veteran Zimbabwean leader accuses the MDC of seeking to
topple him from power with the help of funding from the West and
says the opposition is prepared to give back the land to whites.
Critics say the land reforms have decimated commercial
agriculture and contributed to food shortages.
International aid groups last week said a third of Zimbabwe's population would need food aid by early 2008 after a countrywide crop failure.
Mugabe again accused Britain of leading a Western campaign
to sabotage the economy as punishment for the land seizures, but
said the land reform was irreversible.
- Reuters
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Zimbabwe Special Report
