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Chronicle Reporter
FORMER South African president Cde Thabo Mbeki has lashed out at the West for refusing to endorse Zimbabwe’s harmonised election results saying such actions were tantamount to undermining the integrity of Africa.
Cde Mbeki said this during a Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute presentation at the University of South Africa in Pretoria last Friday, a day after attending President Mugabe’s inauguration at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
“We do not need Washington, Brussels and London to say Africans were wrong in endorsing the (Zimbabwean) elections.
“I know why the special interest in Zimbabwe, a small country by any standards. Zimbabwe has been on the frontline in calling for Africa to determine its future. It’s high time Zimbabwe should be supported in order to put an end to that African contempt,” he said.
African Union (AU), Sadc and Comesa observers who monitored the 31 July elections endorsed the polls as free and fair.
The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-Moon also endorsed the polls and commended Zimbabweans for participating in what he described as a broadly peaceful election.
However, the United States and Britain refused to endorse the elections alleging that they were marred by irregularities.
The two countries also rejected calls by the international community to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe claiming that the elections were not credible.
The US and EU countries imposed the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2000 at the instigation of Britain, which was clearly not happy with the country’s successful land reform programme.
The illegal sanctions received condemnation from progressive forces across the world, including the AU, Sadc and the Non-Aligned Movement.
The sanctions were imposed illegally by the EU and the United States as they were imposed outside the UN processes.
President Mugabe won last month’s elections by 61,09 percent votes that also saw Zanu-PF surpassing a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
His closest rival, MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai got 33,94 percent and immediately challenged the poll outcome citing alleged irregularities.
Mr Tsvangirai later filed a Constitutional Court application challenging President Mugabe’s victory but withdrew the petition arguing that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had allegedly denied him access to the poll material which he wanted to “support his case.”
Cde Mbeki also recently called on African nations to respect the rights of Zimbabweans to choose their own leader and determine their own future while addressing students at the same institution.
He said it was worrying that long before the Zimbabwean elections, some forces sought to discredit them.
Cde Mbeki said the polls were a reflection of the voices of the ordinary Zimbabweans.
The former SA president helped broker the power sharing deal between Zanu-PF and two MDC formations that subsequently led to the formation of the Inclusive Government in 2009.
Online Reporter