Source: Mugabe, SA row escalates – DailyNews Live
DEPUTY EDITOR 10 September 2017
HARARE – Gwede Mantashe, the secretary-general of South Africa’s ruling
African National Congress (ANC), has hit back at President Robert Mugabe
for his recent attacks on him and the late Nelson Mandela as the row
ignited by the 93-year-old remarks fails to cool down tempers.
Mugabe has in the past few days attacked Mandela and the ANC chief in
remarks which have drawn fears of a possible diplomatic row between the
two neighbours.
“President Mugabe should not insult the person & legacy of President
Nelson Mandela. Zimbabwe should be very thankful to us.
“President Mugabe cannot insult us. We don’t research their crisis, we
meet it on the streets,” Mantashe vented his fury on micro blogging site,
Twitter, on Friday evening.
Mugabe on Thursday took a dig at Mantashe for his response to the
nonagenarian’s attacks on Mandela which did not sit well with both the ANC
and President Jacob Zuma’s government.
That was after Mantashe had on Tuesday told the South African media that
he had made a formal complaint during his tele-conversation with Zanu PF
secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo in which he conveyed South
Africa’s and ANC’s outrage at Mugabe’s attacks on Mandela.
“I made this remark in regard to South Africa and what do they call him .
. . Gwede Mantashe stupidly reacted. Yes, they only fought to remove
apartheid. This was it. We talked to them…” Mugabe said in his attack on
the ANC secretary-general.
Tensions have been high ever since Mugabe made claims that Mandela valued
his own freedom more than the economic freedom of his people, that’s why
“everything is in whites’ hands”.
“What was the most important thing for (Mandela) was his release from
prison and nothing else. He cherished that freedom more than anything else
and forgot why he was put in jail,”
“I was in South Africa recently talking to a minister in President Jacob
Zuma’s office and I did ask him how they have handled the land issue after
attaining independence. I did ask him why they left the whites with
everything. He answered my question in English and said: `Ask your friend
Mandela.'”
“They (whites) are in control of land, industries and companies and are
now the employers of the blacks. These blacks have failed to liberate
themselves from white supremacy all because of what Mandela did,” Mugabe
said in his remarks which have left the South Africans outraged.
Mugabe’s attacks on Mandela, the late global icon and former South African
first black president, came as Zuma and his government are under pressure
to justify the decision to grant First Lady Grace Mugabe diplomatic
immunity when she was facing charges of allegedly assaulting a local
model.
Grace was last month granted diplomatic immunity after South African
Police Services said it wanted her charged over allegations of assault
made by Gabriella Engels, a 20-year-old South African model she found with
her two sons at an upmarket hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.
South African opposition and rights groups are pursuing the matter in the
courts.
Political analysts have warned that if Mugabe is not restrained from his
“unwarranted” attacks on South Africa and its leadership, Zimbabwe could
spark a serious diplomatic row with its biggest trading partner which
could lead to a serious fallout.
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