David Christianson
19 May 2008
Johannesburg — President Thabo Mbeki yesterday reacted testily to suggestions that he personally gave instructions to refuel the Chinese ship that attempted to land arms in SA for Zimbabwe's army.
"It's a complete fabrication", a testy Mbeki said, speaking after a weekend meeting of the president's International Investment Council (IIC) in KwaZulu-Natal.
"It seems there is a factory to manufacture lies out there," Mbeki said.
He said he would like to "track it down" and "find out who originated the fabrication". "That will tell us something," he said.
Mbeki said the story was of the same order as other fabrications, including allegations that he or his wife Zanele were related to President Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace; that "Mugabe and Mbeki jointly owned a diamond mine in Democratic Republic of Congo"; that "Mugabe gave Mbeki a farm in Zimbabwe"; that Mugabe was hiding in the SA president's Pretoria house; and that he (Mbeki) "had been arrested in Zimbabwe in 1992 for smuggling drugs and weapons".
Mbeki described these stories as "a sustained campaign to peddle all manner of falsehoods".
The Weekender newspaper said on Saturday Zimbabwe had confirmed receipt of a consignment of weapons from China, on board the Chinese vessel, An Yue Jiang.
Mbeki said he had briefed the IIC on the process in Zimbabwe, "particularly the violence".
He said SA had "a team in Zimbabwe to deal with the matter of violence".
The team was not merely in place to provide reports, he said, but "is there to intervene", he said.
Despite publicly denouncing violence, Mugabe has urged his Zanu (PF) supporters to fight back fiercely to keep him in power "by all means" in the presidential election runoff next month.
His rallying cry came as political adversary Morgan Tsvangirai stayed out of the country amid rumours of an assassination plot.
Mugabe's comments at his party's politburo and central committee meetings last week, that the election was happening in "circumstances of an all-out war", have fuelled political anxieties.
Tsvangirai refused to return home on Saturday after more than a month in Botswana and SA, saying he had " credible information" of an assassination plot against him.
Some in Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) blamed "rogue members in Zanu (PF)".
The government swiftly denied the charge.
The MDC went ahead with a rally in the opposition stronghold of Bulawayo yesterday. Tsvangirai's deputy, Thokozani Khuphe, addressed the 20000-strong gathering instead of Tsvangirai.
She urged supporters to make a final push to "bury" Mugabe in the coming runoff.
A team of South African generals, led by retired Lt-Gen Gilbert Lebeko Ramano, has uncovered chilling acts of violence since it arrived in Zimbabwe on May 4.
The investigators arrived a day before a bloodbath in Chiweshe communal lands, in the central Mashonaland region, where six MDC supporters were killed by a gang allegedly led by a Zanu (PF) MP.
At least 50 other people were injured in the raid.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said in Dakar on Saturday the African Union must send observers to ensure the runoff was fair. But Zimbabwe insists only observers from the first round are welcome.
Wade also called for a coalition government. With Sapa, Dumisani Muleya
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A team from a country where 50 people are killed violently every day is sent to monitor violkence in a country where 50 people are killed violently every year!I think the reverse should be happening i.e Zimbabwe should actually be sending its team to assist the South Africans in controlling the violent madness in their own backyard. Thabo mbeki is right,the factories that are manufacturing lies are in full throttle and unfortunately they are targeting a receptive African market. Thabo Mbeki must learn from Mugabe that all such lies must be refuted immediately as they are released and both the… [Read Full Text]
They can't all be true,or can they?