via Mugabe attack on Mutasa ‘sad’, parties – New Zimbabwe 23/01/2015
OPPOSITION parties have strongly condemned President Robert Mugabe’s vicious attack on his former aide and cabinet minister Didymus Mutasa accusing the veteran leader of being an unrepentant hater.
Mugabe on Thursday used his welcoming rally from a six-week long holiday in the Far East to describe the former Zanu PF secretary for administration as a “stupid fool”.
“A stupid fool cannot be corrected,” Mugabe said to applause from bussed party supporters at the Harare International Airport.
He likened the former security minister to a stray braying donkey.
Mugabe continued: “We have no time for individuals with small brains – disorganised mentally, deranged, if not close to being insane.”
Mugabe’s rants came after Mutasa had questioned the legality of Zanu PF’s December congress where he and several other party bigwigs including then Vice President Joice Mujuru were pushed aside to create room for a rival faction to take control of the beleaguered party.
A bitter Mutasa two weeks ago penned a strongly worded statement vowing to sue party rivals who fronted the ouster of nine Zanu PF provincial chairs and more party loyalists viewed too close to Mujuru.
He insisted the party’s democratic practices were deliberately suppressed by Mugabe to promote members of the rival faction to strategic positions.
Mutasa also criticised the First Lady Grace Mugabe whom he labelled a divisive element in Zanu PF before questioning Mugabe’s “complicit” stance in the charade.
But as Zanu PF factional politics gets dramatic, opposition politicians rebuked Mugabe for his abusive language against party dissidents.
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said the country’s main opposition was not surprised by Mugabe’s “shameful” vitriol.
“This has been the hallmark of Robert Mugabe’s rule in the last 34 years,” Gutu said.
“He is a man who has always shown an amazing degree of intolerance and hatred. It does not come as a surprise to us in the MDC.
“We have said this on several occasions that he is an intolerant dictator who is rabidly opposed to any opinions and views.
“It is totally disgraceful and shameful for a national leader to use that kind of hate language particularly in public.”
Similarly, Nhlanhla Dube, spokesperson of the Welshman Ncube led MDC, suggested Mugabe could inadvertently have been referring to himself when he described his followers as fools.
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“If he has been cohabitating with a fool at the top of his party’s political leadership for such a long time, the question that comes to mind is how long does one need to know that one is a fool,” Dube said.
“Remember the old adage that says that birds of a feather flock together. We would wonder if that is an indicator of the foolishness that abounds in Zanu PF at this juncture.”
Maselina Chikasha, leader of the newly formed African Democratic Party, also took offence with Mugabe’s unguarded utterances, describing the veteran leader as a negative influence to the young.
“Some of us are working towards uniting the people and building a society that is based on Christianity and ubuntu.
“Everything that he has said and the manner in which he speaks is contrary to those values and principles. I find it very sad.”
Professor Lovemore Madhuku’s National Constitutional Assembly was also not amused with President Mugabe’s use of strong language to refer to one of his erstwhile loyalists saying the nearly 91 year old leader does not have the most impeccable history in handling dissent.
“It proves what we have always been saying as the opposition that with a President like Mugabe, we are heading for disaster as a country and all what we need is to get rid of him not only from government but from Zanu PF,” a statement from the party said.
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