SADC shuns Bingu as Comrade Mugabe is booed
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe who stirs mixed feelings in many Malawians received hisses at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre where he was attending the country’s 45th independence celebrations on Monday.
The celebrations, where he was the only other head of state with his host Bingu wa Mutharika, appeared to have been studiously shunned by the 16-member Southern African Development Community, SADC. Only two low-ranking officials from Mozambique and Tanzania attended among locally-based diplomatic staff.
Government sources said the SADC heads are sending a message to Mugabe that his failure to cooperate with their recommendations on the way forward for the Zimbabwe government will not be tolerated.
But a political secretary in one embassy said it has dawned on the leaders of SADC who are on the verge of going to elections of their last terms of office, that they do not want to encourage their own successors to dump their political parties as Mutharika did in Malawi.
Mugabe who is seen by local Malawians as only a titular head following the formation of a unity government with Movement for Democratic Change, MDC was hissed at on entry and was openly booed with his host from the over-crammed 25,000- seater stadium in a show of disaffection with his presence in Malawi.
He was also here in May attending Mutharika’s inauguration. Mugabe is the most frequent visitor and a political buddy of Mutharika.
Some said they were tired with Mugabe while others said the relationship has become an obsession with Mutharika at the expense of the people in the eyes of the international community and in particular, Britain which gives Malawi the second largest chunk of development aid after Bangladesh.
However, there also concerns that Malawi will be seen as comforting the enemy in the eyes of the emerging new leaders who may not be kind to the existing relation.
In the madness-filled attacks against so-called white farm settlers, many of the 3 million Zimbabweans who trace their origins to Malawi were also victims of the extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, rape and torture from marauding Mugabe thugs in uniform and plain clothes.
Others said attended the celebrations for the love of football which was played at the end of long-winded political speeches where Mutharika and his officials took turns to vilify the opposition, in the fashion that his guest revered until he faced the reality that he cannot survive without the opposition.
Mugabe has been a source of mixed reaction in Malawi with protests from civil society and opposition followers removing his name from road furniture bearing his name.
However, Mutharika whose foreign policy favours close ties with China and countries such as Iran as opposed to major bilateral donors like Britain declared Mugabe his political “hero”.
Tagged with: 45th Malawi independence, Bingu, Mugabe, SADC
Bwana naaa pa mugabe ndiye mukuonjeza. Entertaining this animal is as if you are happy with his style of leadership. This cruel man’s time is far great over and its high time you as his closest friend tell him the truth that he must resign as president otherwise we are afraid you may become one like him come 2014. You are the best president in Africa so why taint your good picture with this animal? Bwana chonde think twice better no forein president than Mugabe the Hyena.
The BIG QUESTION is:
Why should the West mobilize Africa against Mugabe (our own) when the West marginalizes Africa? And which damn African leader buys into that, honestly? Our children in the West cannot even get descent jobs regardless.
Hahahahaha!!!
IWE ITS NOT ABOUT THE WEST CANT YOU SEE HOW ZIMBABWEANS HAVE SUFFERED KUPENGA ETI!
I do not believe Mugabe by honoring invitation it is a sign of us entertaining him. If we sent out invitations to our friends in the neighbourhood and only one who you guys don’t like turns up that should never be a problem of anybody or are you people implying Zimbabwe should never have been sent an invitation? By the way it just shows how brain washed the people are with western press. Do you know that despite the economic woes Zimbabwe is the only country in the whole SADC region offering many scholarships to its citizens for further education? There are more good things that Mugabe is doing in Zimbabwe than bad things but since we seem to worship western press thats why we crawl along just like the arabs are doing with al qaeda. Shame on us all.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us not confuse issues here South Africa invited Mugabe during the swearing ceremony of Zuma and had a standing apllause from the crowd.Which SADC countries are you talking about?. If Mugabe was booed by the crowd then thats another issue which many of us are not aware of, the Zimbabwe issue is an internal problem to be sorted out by the Zimbabweans themselves, lets not pretend that we have a solution for Zimbabwe, if MDC Shangirai is dining on the same table with Mugabe who are you to judge Mutharika. People forget that since the time of Dr Banda its Mugabe who has been a brother to our Malawian leaders and during the sickness of Dr BANDA Mugabe was always in touch and after his death he was there mourning with us with the late Joshua Nkomo. Apart from his shortcomings he is our brother our neigbour and a leader who needs guidance from us, let Mugabe sort his family problem alone without any interference. The quarrel that is there with the British, Mugabe was tricked by TONY BLAIR on the 1979 Lancaster Agreement and the issue was handled with tempers and anger which resulted into ZANU PF taking the law into themselves.
People like you should be cloned so that you can educate most ill-informed folks who are writing from their emotions here–not their heads.
Waphalire mwana wapa swaswa
Do not forget that mbalame zomwera chigoba chimodzi ziziwana nthenga.
Pepani
Birds of the same feathers flock together, what else can Bingu do? Mugabe is keeping the parents of Bingu’s late wife and his children, their second home is Zimbabwe, therefore, he can’t do anything to Mugabe, after all he knows, during his retirement in 2014, he will not be in Malawi as he will be haunted by what he is doing to other people while a president today.
Its really sad and annoying to see our president Mutharika continue giving accommodation to a ruthless man of Mugabe’s caliber. Look it is true that Malawi is Mugabe’s 2nd home becoz there is no where else he can call home even in his native country. My only prayer is that lets hope Mutharika doesn’t emulate his zimbabwean counterpart’s poor human rights record other wise we as country have no capacity to survive on our in an event that donors have fled away as is the case with Zimbabwe at the moment.
Bingu is making a serious mistake by regarding Mugabe as his close friend unless i’m told that he is fulfiling the old adage that says “Birds of same feathers flock together.” Everybody is watching where the Mugabe-Mutharika romance will take us to.
The article is a figment of imagination by the author with due respect. There was a AU Summit in Tripoli during the same period,actually Mugabe flew into MW straight from Libya. Let us learn to look at issues objectively a Malawi.
You can write, write & write bad things about BINGU allegedly due to his invitation extended to Mugabe koma mudziwe kuti he has the full mandate from Malawians until 2014. Dr Banda taught us about CONTACT & DIALOGUE osati kumanyozana.
I for one, see some sense in the way Mugabe looks at issues. I think Africans are supposed to be masters of our own destiny despite the donations from azungu.That not withstanding, Mugabe is expected to respect democratic values.
Say no to NEO-COLONISM!!!
Hey hey hey wait a minute… of all the people why Mugabe? Sadc has a bulk of credible leaders who would have equally graced the occassion talk of leaders like Tanzania’s Jakaya Kikwete, Mozambique’s Armando Guebuza, South Africa’s Comrade Jacob “JZ” Zuma, Botswana’s Ian Khama and several others include Juntas in west Africa not Mugabe…this man is a stooge he has caused a lot of suffering among his people and it is utter nonsense to see Mutharika such president red carpet. Any way maybe thats where Mutharika gets his wisdom nanga mmene alili a Mugabe wina wanzeru zache azikati khwelekhwele? Ayi ndithu….its good to hear that anthu amukuwa thats wat he deserves anyway…..Later.