SA hails President

Nduduzo Tshuma Political Editor
SOUTH Africa yesterday heaped praises on President Robert Mugabe for his professional handling of the African Union’s two-day Heads of State summit at the continental body’s recent meet in Ethiopia.President Mugabe assumed the chairmanship of the 54-nation AU at the summit held at the continental body’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

He took over from Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told the country’s media that they had no qualms with their northern neighbour being the helm of the AU.

“He was elected unanimously by his peers as the chair for 2015 and we think he chaired the meeting at the AU very well. We have no qualms about it,” said Nkoana-Mashabane to journalists in Pretoria.

The latest statements by the South African minister fly in the face of Anglo-Saxon allies that made spirited efforts on the eve of opening of the 24th Ordinary session of the General Assembly to scupper President Mugabe’s ascension to the helm of the AU.

Sadc leaders had already endorsed Zimbabwe’s candidature but the country’s traditional detractors who have a hold on donors who sponsor 60 percent of the AU budget had been issuing veiled threats that the AU should not countenance being chaired by a man and country under sanctions.

This was despite the fact that the AU has long condemned the illegal Western sanctions which are estimated to have cost Zimbabwe over $42 billion in lost revenue in addition to contracting the economy by a factor of over 40 percent since the turn of the millennium.

The US, believed to be leading the lobby, has long dubbed Zimbabwe “an unusual and extra-ordinary threat” to its foreign policy of war mongering, plunder and domination of smaller and weaker nations.

Some sections of the Zimbabwean opposition, South African and Western media had prior to the summit led a spirited campaign to tarnish the image of the President with anti-Mugabe chants by disgruntled United Party for National Development supporters in Zambia being made headline items that were cast in geo political terms.

The European Union (EU) last week announced that it was lifting a travel ban on President Mugabe for the next 12 months after he became AU chairman.
However, the ruling Zanu PF party said the announcement was no cause for celebration as President Mugabe remained under European Union sanctions in his capacity as Zimbabwe’s leader.

The party said the EU had moved to avert a major confrontation with Africa by lifting the ban which would have meant President Mugabe, who is also chairman of the Southern African Development Community, could not travel to Europe on AU business.