Mandela Expresses Anger At Mugabe

Mandela Expresses Anger At Mugabe
May 7, 2000 


CAPE TOWN, South Africa (PANA) - Former President Nelson Mandela has slammed Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, labelling him a tyrant who has held on to power for too long.

Mandela, who launched the global partnership for Children of the United Nation's Children Fund with his wife Graca Machel in Johannesburg on Saturday, said some African leaders had liberated their countries, but had then overstayed their welcome. 

"They want to die in power because they have committed crimes. The tyrant of the day can be destroyed by you and I, he said. 

He said leaders like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Pompeii, and Adolf Hitler had also been brought down by the ordinary masses.

Asked by reporters whether he was specifically referring to Mugabe, Mandela snapped back: "Everybody here knows who I am talking about". 

Mandela, who has been outspoken about Mugabe in the past, is strongly involved in trying to resolve the armed conflict in Burundi.

Mugabe, who is facing his biggest crisis since coming to power more than 20 years ago, has come under enormous criticism from human rights organisations and opposition political parties in South Africa. 

President Thabo Mbeki has also been slammed for failing to rebuke Mugabe over the crisis of human and political rights in Zimbabwe, which has impacted on South Africa s economic stability.

Mbeki said his government is still working to resolve the land issue in Zimbabwe without using bullying tactics to influence Mugabe.

"We must do this without arrogance, without seeking to impose ourselves on anybody and without the intoxication of the delusion of the exercise of power we neither have nor desire.

"We must do what we have to, with the courage, the tenacity, the humanity and the humility which belong to those who genuinely believe that they are their brother's and their sister's keeper," he said in an address on Thursday night. 





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2000 Panafrican News Agency. All Rights Reserved. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------