May warns Zimbabwe Britons to take care
Archbishop’s hope is fulfilled to see end of rule that impoverished nation and trampled on human rights
THERESA MAY has called for an avoidance of violence in Zimbabwe, where president Robert Mugabe has been detained by the military.
The Prime Minister said the situation in the southern African country was “fluid” and urged “restraint on all sides” as the army deployed at key locations in the capital Harare and seized control of the state broadcaster.
She said the Government’s primary concern was the safety of UK nationals in the former British colony, and urged expats in Harare to stay “safely at home” until the situation becomes clearer.
South African president Jacob Zuma said he has spoken to Mr Mugabe, stressing the 93-year-old is “fine” but confined to his home.
Zimbabwe’s army said it also has his wife Grace in custody and is securing government offices, sparking suggestions of a coup, although supporters described the action as a “bloodless correction”.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs May said: “Of course our primary concern is the safety of British nationals in Zimbabwe.
“(There is) obviously an uncertain political situation, we do see reports of unusual military activity, so we would recommend British nationals in Harare to remain safely at home until the situation becomes clearer.”
Mr Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, is being opposed by the military for the first time, apparently because of his attempts to ensure his wife Grace took his place. However, he has long been an international pariah for his brutal and inept leadership.
IT WAS 10 years ago, almost to the week, that the recently installed Archbishop of York cut up his dog collar and said he would replace it only when Robert Mugabe left office in Zimbabwe.
Last night, it appeared, finally, that he had got his wish. Dr John Sentamu chose BBC1’s
Andrew Marr Show, which was transmitted live, to make his symbolic gesture. Mugabe, he said, had “taken people’s identity” and “cut it to pieces”, so he would do the same.
Dr Sentamu, who was born in Uganda, has been highly critical of other African leaders for not taking a stand against Mugabe.
“It is African leaders who seem to say, ‘we are backing a revolutionary’,” he said. “I’m sorry, that is a lot of nonsense. They ought to realise what he has actually done.
“It has become a scourge on the conscience of the whole of world.”
As the military’s patience with Mugabe finally ran out yesterday, and as Theresa May urged “restraint on all sides”, politicians were insisting that Zimbabwe’s destiny now lay with its own citizens.
“It is for the Zimbabwean people to chart a way forward, not Her Majesty’s Government,” said the former Africa minister James Duddridge.
“But I think they are doing that, they will do that, and we will support them coming out of what has been a rather nasty dictatorship by one man to a slightly more functioning democracy, probably transitioning by a government of national unity.”
The move by Zimbabwe’s military against Mugabe, who has been in power since the country’s independence from white minority rule in 1980, came after years of authoritarian leadership that saw him become an increasingly paranoid international pariah, believing his opponents were out to kill him.
Any voice of dissidence was met with violence and, in the case of an independent newspaper, shut down. Political enemies were accused of homosexuality, and thrown into jail. Peter Tatchell, the human rights campaigner, was assaulted by Mugabe’s bodyguards in 2001 when he tried to make a citizen’s arrest on the Zimbabwean leader.
Last week, Mugabe fired his vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who then fled the country but said he would return to lead Zimbabwe.
Mugabe’s wife, Grace, who is unpopular with many Zimbabweans for her lavish spending when most people struggle in poverty, had appeared poised to replace Mr Mnangagwa, leading to speculation she could eventually succeed her husband.
Last night, she, too, was in army custody.
Under Mugabe, many humble Zimbabweans became paper billionaires while others hung on the brink of starvation, unable to pay for fuel or food because the country’s stratospheric inflation rendered their money virtually worthless.
In 2008, the state’s central bank printed so much currency that hyperinflation took hold, at one stage reaching 500bn per cent. Inflation was only brought under control when the government adopted the US dollar as its medium of trade, replacing it just last year with bond notes. Comment: Page 14.
It is for the Zimbabwean people to chart a way forward Former Africa minister James Duddridge on the apparent coup in Zimbabwe.