via Mugabe off on 15th trip since January – NewsDay Zimbabwe June 13, 2015
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday left for South Africa for an African Union (AU) summit where he is expected to pile pressure on the continental body to withdraw from the International Criminal Court.
by Everson Mushava
The meeting is also expected to tackle the issue of presidential term limits following the chaos that engulfed Burundi after the incumbent Pierre Nkurunziza insisted on running for a third term against the constitutionally mandated two terms.
Mugabe returned home on Thursday from Egypt where he witnessed the launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area involving Africa’s three regional economic groupings — Sadc, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and East African Community.
The SA trip becomes his 15th since he returned home from a one-month vacation in the Far East in January.
Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mugabe, who is the both Sadc and AU chair, threatened in January this year to push for African ICC members to withdraw from the court at today’s summit.
But he is likely to face resistance from other Sadc countries such as Malawi and Botswana that have already indicated they will not support the pullout.
Zimbabwe is not a signatory to the Rome Statute which set up the ICC in 2002 as Mugabe’s government, fresh from the violent land invasions of 2000 and violent general elections of 2002, did not want to subject itself to external scrutiny in the face of serious human rights violations.
Mugabe is arguing that The Hague-based ICC has been set by the bullying West to victimise African leaders, since so far only Africans have been hauled before the ICC.
Also to top agenda would likely be African leaders’ attempts to change Constitutions to allow them to stand for third terms against their constitutional provisions.
COMMENTS
Well that goes to show how in control Bob is with the day to day running of the sad state that Zimbabwe has become, What’s he up to? Busy using all these meetings as an excuse to move his stolen illbegotten gains out of the country.
Regarding the drain on Zimbabwean taxpayers money, there is one aspect that neither the media nor the president’s office has spoken to regarding the funding of all these AU/SADC trips. Is he funded by the AU/SADC when he travels on official AU/SADC business and if so, has he been simultaneously claiming for travel from Zimbabwe?
This seems logical behaviour from a genocide inflictor of more than 20 000 civilians. Encourage those around you to bid for immunity from a court process that might find yourself guilty of genocide and then offer fellow genocide perpetrators in the AU a safe haven in your country (Mengestu) and give them a farm while you are about it. Why should anybody be surprised by this behaviour – he has had over 90 years of experience now?