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PRESIDENT Mugabe turned 90 in style last week and his birthday celebrations at Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera on Sunday were a testament to his standing in the eyes of Zimbabweans who turned out in their thousands to wish him many happy returns. The President’s stature in the world was manifest in the congratulatory messages he received from two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council namely, China and Russia.
Youths from countries as diverse as Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Namibia and Uganda; along with the US-based December 12 Movement, were also in attendance.
As we reported in yesterday’s issue, the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin commended President Mugabe for his astute leadership in spearheading Africa’s fight for self-determination.
President Mugabe holds the deputy chairpersonship of Sadc and the African Union in spite of western attempts to cast him as a pariah.
In separate congratulatory messages delivered to President Mugabe on the 28th anniversary of the 21st February Movement celebrations in Marondera, presidents Xi and Putin paid tribute to President Mugabe’s commitment to defending Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as fostering a spirit of self-reliance through resource nationalism.
This, coming as it did from two countries that carved their own development models at variance with the ruinous prescriptions from the Bretton Woods institutions, should spur us all to throw our weight behind Zim-Asset and fight the twin evils of sanctions and corruption that pose the greatest threats to delivering on the goals of the people.
What is more, the congratulatory messages from Presidents Xi and Putin were directed not at Zimbabwe the country but Robert Gabriel Mugabe the man and how his life has impacted on Zimbabwe in particular and the developing world in general.
The solidarity messages were ample evidence of the failure of the western propaganda machinery and its regime change agenda.
No progressive person buys western rhetoric anymore.
Sadc and the African Union have since made this clear by elevating President Mugabe to the deputy chair of both bodies making him the incoming Sadc chairperson in August, and the AU chair in January next year.
Once again, the message from Zimbabwe as exemplified by the resounding endorsement of President Mugabe and his party in the elections; and Sadc which moved Zimbabwe from an agenda item to leadership of the bloc and the AU which followed suit is quite clear; Mugabe is no pariah, he is an African hero and Africa can no longer accept having its heroes and heroines defined on western terms.
The AU’s elevation of President Mugabe, which came on the heels of condescending reports that US president Barack Obama was convening a US-Africa Summit to which Zimbabwe would be excluded was quite clear: Obama’s was a tale told by a fool, full of sound and fury yet signifying nothing to Africa. And so it was with David Cameron’s fulminations about boycotting the EU-Africa Summit if President Mugabe was invited.
The EU went on to extend the invitation ignoring the tantrums from 10 Downing Street. We thus hail the progressive world for taking a stand against western bullies.
We need the same at the United Nations to that the world body can play its role in countries like Syria, the Ukraine and other trouble spots worldwide which the Anglo-Saxon war machine use for target practice.
Online Reporter