Zim is strong, US is fragile, Mugabe tells forum
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe denied yesterday his country was a “failed state”, insisting that it was a well-resourced country, and instead taking a shot at the United States.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Durban, Mugabe said: “We are not a poor country and we can’t be a fragile country.
“I can call America fragile, they went on their knees to China.”
During the session titled Eye on Africa’s Failing States, the elderly statesman said the southern African country was one of the most well-resourced countries on the continent, adding that Zimbabwe had 14 universities and a literacy rate of more than 90%.
However, Oxfam’s executive director, Winnie Byanyima, in a veiled jab at Mugabe, said the problem was that African leaders were dictatorial.
“Our leaders say we are rich, they say we are developed, they say we have resources, but the people do not see that.
“They clamp down on freedom of the media and the rights of people,” she said.
Byanyima said communities with strong governance structures at a local level could not be fooled by gun-wielding leaders ruling societies with weak institutions, and who spoke on the radio from the capital.
In Byanyima’s parting shot to Mugabe, she said: “Let us give others a chance. It is important that we have elections that are free and fair – that reflect the will of the people. That is at the heart of governance.”
At the same session, US actor and activist Forest Whitaker said celebrities had a duty to speak out about human rights abuses.
“They should, like everyone else should, take the opportunity to let their voices be heard when other people are suffering,” he said.
Whitaker said he had spent the past five years in South Sudan, trying to bring hope to young people.
The Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative, the foundation established by the actor, who is also the Unesco special envoy for peace and reconciliation, opened a sports centre in the Protection of Civilians camp managed by the United Nations in Juba, as well as a computer centre in Torit, South Sudan. – ANA