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President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party has not commented after ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe this week called on the Zimbabwean leader to stop attacking former president Nelson Mandela’s legacy.
Mantashe on Tuesday said he spoke to his counterpart in Zanu-PF by phone and lodged a formal complaint over Mugabe’s utterances about Mandela, which were “unwarranted and unfortunate attacks”.
In comments translated by news website NewZimbabwe.com, Mugabe said: “The most important thing for [Mandela] was his release from prison and nothing else. He cherished that freedom more than anything else and forgot why he was put in jail.”
Mantashe also accused Mugabe of devastating Zimbabwe’s economy.
“The reality of the matter is that you have destroyed the economy of your country,” Mantashe said during a press conference at the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg.
According to Zimbabwe’s privately owned NewsDay newspaper, Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo denied knowledge of Mantashe’s phone call.
“Nobody has talked to me about it. If they wrote a letter of protest, it would have been directed to [Ignatius] Chombo [Zanu-PF secretary for administration]. I cannot comment on things that have not been communicated to me. The secretary for administration is better placed [to answer the questions],” Moyo said.
Chombo was unavailable for comment.
Mugabe last week reportedly also said that Mandela cherished his personal freedom over the economic freedom of his people, which was why “everything is in the whites’ hands” in South Africa today.
The 93-year-old president said this while speaking in Shona at a ruling party rally in the central town of Gweru on Friday.
The biggest mistake
Mugabe claimed this view of Mandela was shared by ministers in President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet.
“I was in South Africa recently talking to a minister in President Jacob Zuma’s office and I asked him how they handled the land issue after attaining independence. I asked him why they left the whites with everything. He answered my question in English and said: ‘Ask your friend Mandela.’”
This was the second time in recent days that Mugabe hit out at Mandela’s legacy – he made similar remarks at a state funeral recently. Mugabe said that Mandela had made “the biggest mistake” by failing to attend to land reform in South Africa.
“They [whites] are in control of land, industries and companies, and are now the employers of the blacks. These blacks have failed to liberate themselves from white supremacy all because of what Mandela did,” said Mugabe.
– News24
