Mugabe implores media to stop tarnishing Zuma for national unity

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma was defended from an unexpected quarter yesterday, when visiting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe urged the media to “stop tarnishing him”.

“You can tarnish me – I don’t care,” he said at a press conference after he had met Zuma for official talks on his first state visit to South Africa since 1994.

“We are Africans. We don’t tarnish our leaders,” he said, adding that while political opponents could have disagreements, they should support national unity.

Though Mugabe sniped at his old enemies such as former British premier Tony Blair and Western governments, he showed flashes of humility.

He and his ministers had exchanged some harsh words when Zuma was trying to mediate an agreement between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change a few years ago.

But he was full of praise for Zuma, congratulating him yesterday for his government’s efforts to resolve the recent political dispute in Lesotho and for its peacekeeping work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He also thanked Pretoria for its tolerance of illegal Zimbabwe immigrants, “as our people have really offended… by jumping the border and disturbing your social systems”.

Mugabe said they must find “ways of controlling the movement of people which have not been sanctioned”.

He referred to South Africa as Zimbabwe’s “elder brother” economically, appealing to it to help Zimbabwe add value to its extensive natural resources.

South Africa rolled out the red carpet for Mugabe, receiving him with full honours on only his second state visit and raising diplomatic relations to the highest level.

The two governments signed an agreement to establish a bi-national commission which would be co-chaired by the two heads of state.

Mugabe had not paid a state visit to South Africa since August 1994, when Nelson Mandela was just inaugurated as the first president since the birth of the new democracy.

In the meantime, Mugabe and Zimbabwe have largely been on the regional problem list as first former president Thabo Mbeki and then President Jacob Zuma tried to broker agreements to resolve a sometimes violent political crisis between Mugabe’s ZanuPF and the MDC.

But since Mugabe and Zanu-PF decisively won presidential and legislative elections in 2013, ending a troubled “unity” government with the MDC, South Africa, along with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the AU, has accepted Zimbabwe back as a member in good standing.

Mugabe has since then been appointed chairperson of both the SADC and AU.

The two governments also signed agreements yesterday for regular diplomatic consultations, including greater co-operation on African security issues and on managing water resources, customs, trade and industry.