Full Text of Robert Mugabe''s speech to Zimbabweans - INFORMATION NIGERIA informationng.com
Ousting Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe addressed the nation last night. Here is that controversial speech in full.
Fellow
Zimbabweans, I address you tonight on the back of a meeting I held
today with the nation’s security forces command element.
This
meeting which was facilitated by a mediating team… followed an operation
mounted by the Zimbabwean Defence Forces in the week that has gone by,
and which was triggered by concerns from their reading of the state of
affairs in our country and in the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Whatever
the pros and cons of the way they went about registering those concerns,
I as the President of Zimbabwe and as their Commander in Chief do
acknowledge the issues they have drawn my attention to, and do believe
these were raised in the spirit of honesty and out of deep and patriotic
concern for the stability of our nation and for the welfare of our
people.
As I address you I am also aware of a whole range of
concerns which have come from you all as citizens of our great country
and which deserve our untrammelled attention.
Today’s meeting
with the command element has underscored the need for us to collectively
start processes that return our nation to normalcy so that all our
people can go about their business unhindered in an environment of
perfect peace and security assured that the law and order prevail as
before and endure well into the future.
If there is any one
observation we have made and drawn from events of the last week it is
the unshakable pedestal upon which rests our state of peace and law and
order, amply indicating that as Zimbabweans we are generally a peaceably
disposed people and with a given-ness to express our grievances and to
resolve our differences ourselves and with a level of dignity and
restraint so rare to many other nations. This is to be admired. Indeed
such traits must form the path of our national character and
personality. Yes, a veritable resource we summon and draw upon in times
of vicissitudes.
The operation I have alluded to did not amount
to a threat to our well-cherished constitutional order, nor was it a
challenge to my authority as head of state and government, not even as
commander in chief of the Zimbabwean Defence Forces. To the man, the
commend element remained respectful and comported themselves with
diktats and mores of constitutionalism. True, a few incidents may have
occurred here and there but they are being corrected. I am happy that
throughout the short period the pillars of state remained functional.
Even happier for me and arising from today’s meeting is a strong sense
of collegiality and comradeship now binding the various arms of our
security establishment. This should redound to greater peace and offer
an abiding sense of security in communities and in our entire nation.
Among
the issues discussed is that relating to our economy, which as we all
know is going through a difficult patch. Of greater concern to our
commanders are the well-founded fears that the lack of unity and
commonness of purpose in both party and government was translating into
perceptions of inattentiveness to the economy. Open public spats between
officials in the party and government exacerbated by multiple
conflicting messages from both the party and government made the
criticisms levelled at us inescapable.
Amidst all this, flagship
projects already adopted by government stood stalled or mired in
needless controversies. All this needs to stop as we inaugurate a new
work culture and pace which will show a strong sense of purpose and
commitment to turning around our economy in terms of our policies. The
government remains committed to improving the social and material
conditions of the people. Government will soon unveil an entrepreneurial
skills and business development program which will empower and unleash
gainful projects at our growth points and in rural areas.
Fellow
Zimbabweans we are a nation born out of a protracted struggle for
national independence. Our roots lie in that epochal struggle whose
goals and ideals must guide our present and structure our future.
The
tradition of resistance is our collective legacy, whose core tenets
must [be] subscribed [to] by all across generations and across times.
Indeed these too were a concern of our commanders who themselves were
makers of that revolution and often at very tender ages and at great
personal peril. We still have in our various communities veterans of
that founding struggle who might have found the prevailing management of
national and party issues quite alienating. This must be corrected
without delay, include ensuring that these veterans continue to play
central roles in the lives of our nation. We must all recognise that
their participation in the war of liberation exacted lifelong costs
that, while hardly repayable, may still be assuaged and ameliorated.
In
respect of the party and the party issued raised both by the commanders
and by the general membership of Zanu-PF, these too stand acknowledged.
They have to be attended to with a great sense of urgency, however I am
aware that as a party of liberation, Zanu-PF has over the years written
elaborate rules and procedures that guide the operations of all its
organs and personnel. Indeed the current criticisms raised against it by
the command element and some of its members have arisen from a
well-founded perception that the party was stretching or even failing in
its own rules and procedures. The way forward thus cannot be based on
swapping vying cliques that ride roughshod over party rules and
procedures. There has to be a net return to the guiding principles of
our party as enshrined in its constitution, which must apply fairly and
equitably in all situations and before all members. The era of
victimisation and arbitrary decisions must be put behind [us], so as we
all embrace a new ethos predicated on the supreme law of our party and
nourished by an abiding sense of camaraderie.
To all, there must
be a general recognition that Zanu-PF is a party of traditions and has
been served by successive generations who are bound together by shared
ideals and values, which must continue to reign supreme in our nation.
Hints
of inter-generational conflict must be resolved through harmonised
melding of old established players as they embrace and welcome new rules
through a well-defined sense of hierarchy and succession.
Indeed
all these matters will be discussed and settled at the forthcoming
Congress within the framework of a clear roadmap that seeks to resolve
once and for all any omissions or contradictions that have affected our
party negatively. The Congress is due in a few weeks from now. I will
preside over its processes, that must not be prepossessed by any acts
calculated to undermine it or compromise the outcomes in the eyes of the
public.
As I conclude this address I am aware that many
developments have occurred in the party or have been championed and done
by individuals in the name of the party. Given the failings of the past
and the anger these might have triggered in some quarters, such
developments are quite understandable, however we cannot be guided by
bitterness or vengefulness, both of which would not make us any better
party members or any better Zimbabweans. Our hallowed policy of
reconciliation which we pronounced in 1980 and through which we reached
out to those which occupied and oppressed us for nearly a century and
those we had traded fire with in a bitter war surely cannot be
unavailable to our own, both in the party and in our nation.
We
must learn to forgive and to resolve contradictions, real or perceived,
in a comradely Zimbabwean spirit. I am confident that from tonight our
whole nation at all levels gets refocused as we put our shoulder to the
wheel amidst the promising agricultural season already upon us.
Let us all move forward reminding ourselves of our wartime mantra: [You and I have work to do].
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