'UK tried to stage Zim coup'
18/07/2007 17:26  - (SA)  

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Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe accused his opponents on Wednesday of trying to topple his government by undermining the economy, saying they had failed to entice security forces into staging a coup.

"We are going through hard times, times during which the enemy is using clandestine methods to undermine our sovereignty and he is using economic methods because political methods he has applied are failing to destroy the means of the economy," he said at the burial of a national hero in the capital.

The 83-year-old, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, said his enemies were using "people in the economy who are pliable and susceptible to undermine that economy on which the political strength lies".

Enemies of Zimbabwe had also failed to persuade the security forces to rise up and stage a coup, he added.

"Those men you see wearing berets are determined to ensure the country's security. They have refused to be tempted to go against their own people," he said.

"The British had said there would be a coup in Zimbabwe. They were dangling a coup as if it was a piece of cake to be licked.

"But they (the army) are able to distinguish between the enemy bait and true assistance."

The former British colony is currently in the grip of a galloping inflation rate that is believed to have surged well beyond 5 000%.

After retailers and manufacturers hiked their prices on a daily basis in a bid to keep pace, Mugabe and his government last month ordered stores to slash their prices in half, a move that has led to widespread shortgages.

The president said there was need for unity between the government and those in business whom he warned must keep their goods affordable.

He said: "Those in business, our own people have to realise that they are not a separate entity from the rest of the people.

"If they want to make profits they have got to address the issue of treating their customers kindly, treat them well.

"The prices must be affordable prices, so that the people will buy," he said to widespread applause.

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