Munyonyo — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni -- whose country holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council -- has told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to keep his hands off Zimbabwe and let Zimbabweans solve their own problems failing which their neighbours in Sadc, who stand to be affected by any fallout, will assist.

President Museveni was speaking during a meeting with President Mugabe and Deputy Prime Ministers Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara at Entebbe State House on Saturday soon after their arrival for the 2009 Smart Partnership Dialogue underway here.

The Ugandan leader said he had reminded Mr Brown about the experiences East Africa had in Burundi where suggestions had been made that outsiders such as former US president Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu facilitate the resolution of the problems there.

President Museveni, who was then chairing the process, and the East African leadership insisted that the now late former Tanzanian president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere be left to mediate the process.

"I told these Western governments who wanted external mediation that the Burundians have very long surnames like Ntibantuganya (in reference to the former Burundian president Sylvestre Ntibantuganya, who assumed power after the then incumbent Cyprien Ntaryamira was killed along with Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana sparking the 1994 genocide), and that by the time former president Jimmy Carter learns to pronounce Burundi names, events in Burundi will have taken a turn for the worst."

President Mugabe -- who is Zimbabwe's Head of State and Government as well as Commannder-in-Chief of the Defence Forces -- had highlighted the problems Zimbabwe was having with outside interference in the inclusive Government, saying the British prime minister was calling for Zanu-PF's ouster while his predecessor Tony Blair recently called for the toppling of the Zimbabwean Head of State and Government.

Deputy PM Mutambara blasted the West's condescending behaviour saying: "We cannot have foreigners telling us what to do, we -- who are on the ground.

"It is patronising. Whatever challenges we have are teething, and we will overcome them. The externals are mourning more than us, the bereaved."

President Museveni responded by quoting a Buganda saying which, when translated to English, goes: "The one who loves the baby more than the mother wants to eat the baby."

The Ugandan leader then had invaluable words of advice for both Deputy Prime Ministers.

He drew their attention to Karl Marx's concept of dialectics that he called Negation by Negation, which he interpreted to mean that there is always change but in continuity.

He gave the analogy of human conception up to childbirth saying as the foetus grows in the womb there are certain changes that are unavoidable and irrevocable, yet there are also certain things about the foetus that can never change but can only develop.

He gave the example of the placenta saying whereas when the baby is still a foetus, it needs the placenta for both respiration and nutrition.

As the foetus transforms and matures into a baby up to birth, the placenta has to rapture as the baby cannot take into the world outside.

Meanwhile, the brains do not rapture, but mature and accompany the baby into the world until the baby becomes a person who is an actor in his own right; in apparent reference to the need to balance change and continuity.

President Museveni then reminded the DPMs that President Mugabe represents the political leadership with a legacy of fighting for freedom -- leadership that gave Zimbabwe political independence.

"That is why you should allow political freedom fighters to create a technocratic base for transforming our economies.

"Confrontation is not necessary because these people brought political freedom.

"When you demonise President Mugabe you are not building him," the Ugandan leader explained to them.

Said DPM Mutambara in response: "We build on the foundation of the liberation struggle, and we have only had happy disagreements with the liberation party, Zanu-PF."

He, however, said the forces of continuity should not stand in the way of change.

To this the Ugandan leader responded saying a baby cannot insist that: "I must remain with the placenta."

"You have to understand the dialectic of change, otherwise you cause destruction," President Museveni said, adding: "If you advocate change with no continuity, the result is an abortion."

DPM Khupe concurred saying the inclusive Government represented change with continuity.

President Museveni reminded the meeting that in one of the local languages, the name Mugabe means "the one who gives or distributes", in apparent reference to the progressive land reform programme President Mugabe launched at the turn of the millennium.

President Mugabe and his delegation touched down at Entebbe International Airport at 4.45pm, Ugandan time, yesterday.

He was welcomed by Uganda's Minister of Higher Education, Mr Gabriel Opio; Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Kenya, Kelebert Nkomani; Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube; Science and Technology Development Minister Heneri Dzinotyiwei; Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni; and Smart Partnership co-ordinator Ms Mihaela Smith.