WITH the SADC Heads of State Summit just a week away, Zanu PF Secretary of Information Christopher Mutsvangwa has warned the West to stay away from Zimbabwe's politics.
Mutsvangwa told the media during a press conference at the party's headquarters this Thursday that Western countries had on several occasions, tried, without success to meddle in Zimbabwe's political affairs.
Police this week warned anyone trying to disturb the smooth running of the summit in Harare where President Emmerson Mnangagwa will assume the chairmanship of SADC, saying such will be dealt with decisively.
Close to 100 activists and human rights defenders have in the past few months been arrested, with some accused of planning protests in cahoots with unnamed foreign powers. Rights watchdogs, the US and UK embassies have condemned the crackdown on dissenting voices.
"About the diplomatic event which is coming next week, which is the SADC Heads of State meeting, l want to hail first the President for fighting to make sure that what is the norm in SADC is respected, which is the rotation of the chairmanship, without chastising a member state.
"All of you are aware, or you need to be aware, that since our historic land reform, there have been concerted efforts by post-imperial interests in the region, and their supporters in the West, to try to have Zimbabwe put under the kosher by SADC.
"We went through a difficult period where the SADC tribunal was used, tried to be used to reverse the land reform in Zimbabwe, and it went so far as concerted efforts to make sure that Zimbabwe is ostracised from SADC because we had charted a pan-Africanist path about Zimbabwe's future development for the benefit of the majority of the African population of Zimbabwe, to fulfil the goals and tenets of our national liberation movement struggle in the 1970s," Mutsvangwa said.
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He added, "When we recovered our land, there was umbrage, there was gnashing of teeth, faced by the settler colonial minority outposts in Southern Africa who were dispossessed.
"Then they teamed up with the metropolitan powers of their original countries of origin, which is Brussels, Paris, London, and of course Washington, the superpower which also has got a European origin."
Mutsvangwa said the matter came to a high point during 'Operation Restore Legacy' alleging 'an improvised foreign minister' tried to call for a SADC ministerial summit to condemn the people of Zimbabwe over the coup.
He stated there had been attempts to abuse SADC for over two decades so that it could "chastise" Zimbabwe and have it ostracised from the region.
"There is no more question of Zimbabwe and its legitimacy to assume the rotating chairmanship of SADC. There are spirited efforts by the same quarters to try to tarnish the success which he has got by hosting SADC as chairman in the next week but these are coming to nought," Mutsvangwa told journalists.
"Zimbabwe is stable and progressive and succeeding. Now, if they try to encourage instability or try to interfere in Zimbabwe's affairs, then you get our youth agitated.
"You may reap the whirlwind. It is not right that Western countries try to arouse Zimbabweans to agitation. It is best to let sleeping dogs lie."
