PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe warned Friday that
Zimbabwe could pull out of SADC, accusing the regional bloc of trying to
arm-twist his government into disobey a Constitutional Court ruling compelling
him to call for elections not later than July 31 this year. Mugabe was
addressing thousands of Zanu PF supporters in a televised launch of his party’s
election manifesto in Harare. He insisted he had the final say on when polls
must held and described South Africa’s Lindiwe Zulu as “an idiotic street
women”.
Zulu, a member of SADC facilitator
President Jacob Zuma’s backroom staff, recently said the regional grouping
would have preferred the elections to be delayed by a month to allow the full implementation
of key electoral reforms. The Constitutional Court ordered Mugabe to proclaim
an election date before the end of the month, which he did, but the SADC asked
the government to seek a two-week following appeals by the MDC parties.
The Court rejected the appeals on Thursday
and ordered that elections must go ahead on July 31. But Mugabe was adamant he
was not going to go against the Concourt ruling. The veteran leader, who was
decked out in his party’s regalia, attacked his coalition partners for seeking
SADC intervention while seeking a push to the election date. “They thought they
could go outside our country and appeal against the decision of our court,” he
said.
“Even lawyers, professors who know better
that the judgement of our Supreme Court is final and must be obeyed, still
wanted, for some reason or the other, to get outsiders to intervene. No
outsider is allowed to intervention in our situation where our courts would
have given a ruling. That’s final and we are the people to decide what to do.
“Do we obey or disobey? We dare not disobey and that’s
why l obeyed and complied with that ruling or command of the court.”
Mugabe, who predicted a 90 percent victory
for his party, said the courts directed him as president to proclaim an
election date and did not make mention of Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his
deputy Arthur Mutambara. The two MDCs were agitating for the postponement of
the elections. “Others still said ‘ah Mugabe did not consult”. Did l have to
consult them? I am given the authority to make proclamations,” he declared. “l
don’t have to consult anyone on that matter; on other administrative matters
where l had to make some decisions but this was a matter where the court said
the president has to give a ruling.
“lt (the court) did not say the president
and Tsvangirai and Mutambara so l made that proclamation but still they ran
with that proclamation to a SADC meeting in Maputo thinking that SADC had the
power.
“SADC has no power to command us to do
that which our courts said cannot be done.”
Mugabe, who was accompanied by his wife Grace,
threatened a pull-out from SADC.
“Let it be known that we are in SADC
voluntarily. If SADC decides to do stupid things we can move out and withdraw
from SADC but for now we have had a SADC which has had good sense although from
some quarters and l dare to say unfortunately these were not quarters of
authority,” he said.
“They were just utterances by some stupid
idiotic woman perhaps in South Africa saying ‘no, elections cannot be held on
the 31st of July’ even against the ruling of our court and just an ordinary
street woman says no.
“Ah! And really it’s interesting. Did such
persons ever think that we as an independent country could take heed of these
street utterances which were stupid and idiotic.”
Mugabe, who spoke for nearly an hour and a
half, described the impending watershed polls as “do or die” elections and “a
battle for survival” for his party. He appealed to his party candidates to
restore his party’s yesteryear political dominance in the country. The Zanu PF
star rally, which was held at the Zimbabwe Grounds in Harare’s Machipisa high
density suburb, was also aimed at launching the party’s election campaign and
to parade party candidates for this month’s harmonized polls.
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