Namibia’s Ruling Party Elders Rally Behind Zimbabwe’s Mugabe

Namibia’s ruling SWAPO party’s Elders Council, an influential group, on Friday threw its weight behind Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, urging the southern regional community to guard against what they termed as neocolonialism.

The Elders Council, which oversees the ruling party’s presidium, also slammed xenophobic attacks against black foreigners in South Africa. In a hard hitting statement, the Elders blamed Western countries for the economic situation in Zimbabwe and urged citizens of that country to vote for Mugabe.

Secretary-General Immanuel Muatala said that the Southern African Development Community region should be vigilant of events unfolding in Zimbabwe, saying they feared that neo-colonialism will erupt in Zimbabwe if all African leaders are not careful.

“Mugabe (Zimbabwean president) defeated these imperialists with guns and diplomacy. Now they use money for puppet opposition parties,” said Muatala.

Embattled Mugabe, who faces the opposition MDC in a run-off election on June 27, accuses former colonizer Britain and its allies of hatching a plot to topple him from power by sponsoring the opposition.

The Zimbabwean leader, still revered in Africa as a hero of the African liberation struggle, also accuses Western countries of sabotaging the country’s economy through imposition of biting sanctions.

Zimbabwe has one of the world’s highest inflation at 165,000 percent annually.

“We, as leaders, cannot be fooled because we know very well that the western countries want puppet regimes to be installed in our countries,” Muatala said.

The elders blamed western countries for starving Zimbabweans and urged the country’s citizens to vote for the ruling Zanu PF, a party which they said not only fought for the liberation of their country from Britain, but also for their land from white farmers who had occupied the best farm land, leaving the rest of the unproductive to blacks.

“African leaders must learn something from the current Zimbabwean situation,” the elders said.

The elders also condemned xenophobic attacks in South Africa, saying that during the struggle against apartheid, Namibians and South Africans shared refugee camps, hostels and schools in other African countries. “How can we have short memories of a recent strategic past,” Muatala said.

In a related matter, the state owned New Era newspaper published names of 29 Namibians which the paper claimed were victims of xenophobic attacks in neighboring South Africa. But no Namibian has so far been reported to have died from the attacks.

Source African Press Agency

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