Report: 6 More Years For Zimbabwe's Mugabe
State Media Says President To Stay In Office Despite Ills Plaguing African Nation
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Two factions in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front had vied for supremacy over who would replace the 83-year-old Mugabe. But both factions are said to have now "closed ranks" behind Mugabe's continued role as president. (AP / file)
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Didymus Mutasa, the powerful No. 3 official in Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, said Mugabe's succession was now off the agenda, according to the newspaper, a government mouthpiece.
"There is absolutely nothing to talk about the succession issue any more for the next six years because we shall have the president as our leader. He is not going to be succeeded for that period," Mutasa was quoted as saying.
Mutasa acknowledged two main factions in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front had vied for supremacy over who would replace 83-year-old Mugabe. But he said both factions now "closed ranks" behind Mugabe's continued role as president.
The party agreed Mugabe could not leave when he was needed by both the party and the nation facing what he described as "difficulties," Mutasa said, according to the newspaper.
"So it was quite right of him (Mugabe) to say: ... 'I am not going away, I cannot be running away from a burning house. I should stay and put out the fire,' " Mutasa was quoted as saying.
He insisted Mugabe's decision to stay on until at least 2013, when he would be almost 90, did not leave the party divided.
"As trained and loyal liberation fighters, everyone was rallying around the incumbent leader," Mutasa said in an interview with the state media, the Sunday Mail reported.
The tenor of Mutasa's remarks was reminiscent of several previous occasions when Mugabe, Mutasa and other close loyalists clamped down on calls within the party for Mugabe, the only ruler since independence in 1980, to step down.
In 2004, the ruling party faced its deepest split over Mugabe's choice of Joyce Mujuru, wife of the influential former army commander Gen. Solomon Mujuru, as the nation's second vice president. She became the first woman in the post and effectively blocked former Parliament Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa's place as first in line to replace Mugabe.
Mugabe railroaded Mujuru into office but last year relations between the two cooled as Gen. Mujuru became increasingly critical of Mugabe and the couple's faction strengthened against Mnangagwa's group.
Mugabe's critics blame him for the southern African nation's economic meltdown, citing mismanagement, his failure to curb high-level graft and for sanctioning state-orchestrated violence against opponents, including the assaults by police and the hospitalization of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and scores of opposition activists in recent weeks.
Official inflation is running at 2,200 percent and Zimbabwe faces acute shortage of hard currency, gasoline, food and most basic goods.
Five-yearly parliamentary and presidential polls are scheduled next March and there had been suggestions Mugabe might later step down after winning a clean sweep against the fractured opposition, making way for at least fresh economic reforms.
The Sunday Mail sold briskly on the streets of Harare on Sunday.
"Six years? God help us. I don't know how much more of this can we take?" said one businessman at a news stand who asked not to be identified.
It is an offense in Zimbabwe, punishable by jail, to publicly insult Mugabe.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



Posted by knowitalllll at 01:23 PM : May 06, 2007
No body need American money, go help Iraqs. I do not know who tought Americans that they gives us money, I was brought up in Africa and now I am 30 and I have never spend any money that belong to an American, I mean we do not need any of you money, take these whites in our landsa out to American and give them land and all will be well, what we do not need is any body killing our own, all taking what is ours under the disguise of humanitalian assistance, again the issue of Mugabe is not about the American aid it is about the black people and the white man I want you to understand that and stop thinking we need your aid, the most your government should do is to stop the illegal sanctions and tell the white to leave and all will be well, after that you can take your aid where you want, no body is begging.
Will the Bush regime Butcher's ever surrender power peacefully?
What does this have to do with whites or blacks in America? You say to take the whites out of your land and you will be well. Wonderful, let's make a trade. You take all the blacks in America back to Africa with you and us American whities will bring the whites in Africa back to America. Is that what you want?
It is amazing when a black man is Africa is named Robert and blacks in America have names such as Sheneequa, Lemongello, Oranjello or Nosmoking.
It is amazing when a black man is Africa is named Robert and blacks in America have names such as Sheneequa, Lemongello, Oranjello or Nosmoking.
Yes we can do that; take all white and blacks from America back to Europe and Africa and let the Indians have their own villages, that might happen one day if America keep messing with other peoples, every nation state has its own weakness. Robert to me is just a flag of convinience you had to have such names even to go school in colonial Africa, so we adopted, now the whites in south africa want to call them selves Africans we tell them no we are the Africans, let me tell you Christianity brought down the Roman Empire, let is see what democracy do to the Americans, you can not just through stones to glass houses if you are living in one, and we know, in your America there is no freedom to go by let the world decide for themselves how they want to be lead and there will be no problem.
The people have spoken.
Long live Magnanimous Mugabe, African Hero!
May you and the rest of the indigenous peoples stand long on the cowardly necks of the thieving, murderous, colonizing and enslaving invaders, who entered your indigenous space UNPROVOKED like wild Neanderthal beasts, and who continue relentlessly with their evil designs on indigenous peoples, on their lands and on their resources!
May the murdering and thieving invaders and their equally thieving and murderous invading supports rot with maggots while still alive! LOL
And if it wasnt for the white man, you would still be living in hut, but then maybe you still are.
And if it wasnt for the white man, you would still be living in hut, but then maybe you still are.
Go hung!, we defeated you in Rhodesian war, so come again and get hit!
I MEAN WE WISH YOU COULD COME AND TEACH YOU SOME GOOD LESSON, AGAIN WE DO NOT NEED YOUR MONEY, ACTUALLY WE NEED A LITTLE WAR AND THAT WILL GIVE US A CHANCE TO FINISH WHAT WAS LEFT UNATTENDED, THE LAND AND MINING REFORMS, ABOUT LIVING IN HUTS, IN ZIMBABWE THERE WAS GREAT ZIMBABWE EVEN BEFORE THE WHITE MAN COME TO COLONIZED AND ENSLAVE, YOU OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF YOUR HORRIFIC AND INHUMAN HISTORY, COME AGAIN I AM READY!
Posted by knowitalllll at 04:56 PM : May 06, 2007"
LOL
What's wrong with 'living in huts' in a HEALTHY environment? LOL
Like a thieving, murdering, marauding Neanderthal beast, the white man brought nothing but destructiveness outside of his indigenous space in EUROPE to the rest of the plane! Now the planet is creaking under the polluted load of the white man.
The white mutant's legacy will be DESTRUCTION and POLLUTION of the planet!
If you think that slavery is just in Africa, then for a real eye opener, you may want to do an Internet search on porn and notice the innumerable white b-itches and hoz who are s-ex slaves. Some don't even realize they are s-ex slave; because they are too lost and comfortable behaving like wild beasts with those pale puzzies. LOL
Posted by rhs648 at 12:50 AM : May 07, 2007"
YES!
We in our collective 'wisdom' can elect and RE-ELECT a lost leader ourselves! LOL
We prefer to elect the lost lunatic leader who will 'stay the course' in sacrificing American lives and limbs in a WORTHLESS CAUSE.
At least the people of Zimbabwe aren't losing lives and limbs every day in a LOSING CAUSE!
Posted by Agnim
Zimbabwe does not allow dissent. In fact, criticism against Mugabe is prohibited. When Zimbabwe allows the freedoms we have in America, they will then have bragging rights. If you are unhappy with President Bush, how would you feel having a ruthless dictator like Mugabe? Ask the whites in Zimbabwe who have lost their farms, their income, and their lives.
Posted by Agnim
Zimbabwe does not allow dissent. In fact, criticism against Mugabe is prohibited. When Zimbabwe allows the freedoms we have in America, they will then have bragging rights. If you are unhappy with President Bush, how would you feel having a ruthless dictator like Mugabe? Ask the whites in Zimbabwe who have lost their farms, their income, and their lives.
So you are actually fighting for the whites, they stole our land and so we are taking back what is ours, again give them land somewhere in Europe or America and nobody will compalain, they can be even be better farmers there.
Posted by leona991
This is as absurd as suggesting that "Afro-Americans be shipped to Africa." They are citizens in America entitled to the rights and priviledges of citizens. They are entitled to protection under the law. We would not allow their property to be confiscated or stollen by the government.
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by leona991
May 8, 2007 3:27 AM EDT
- "So you are actually fighting for the whites, they stole our land and so we are taking back what is ours, again give them land somewhere in Europe or America and nobody will compalain, they can be even be better farmers there."
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Reply to this comment
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See all 18 CommentsPosted by leona991
This is as absurd as suggesting that "Afro-Americans be shipped to Africa." They are citizens in America entitled to the rights and priviledges of citizens. They are entitled to protection under the law. We would not allow their property to be confiscated or stollen by the government.
NO I AM TALKING ABOUT THOSE WHITE PIGS IN AFRICA, WHO DO NOT BELONG THERE, ARE YOU ONE OF THEM AND THAT IS WHY YOU CAN NOT READ RIGHT.