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The African Struggle
GOOD RIDDANCE TONY BLAIR -Robert Mugabe
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ZIMBABWE WELCOMED British Prime Minister Tony Blair's resignation on Thursday, describing his departure as "good riddance".
"He was the worst thing that ever happened to Africa," said the country's deputy information minister, Bright Matonga.
"We hope that the children of Iraq and Afghanistan he (Blair) is killing everyday will haunt him for the rest of his life." |
The ailing Southern African state's ageing ruler Robert Mugabe was a fierce foe of Blair, who he has described as a dictator and an enemy of Zimbabwe.
The veteran leader has said that Harare's diplomatic impasse with former colonial ruler Britain could end after Blair, whom he once famously urged to keep his "little pink nose" out of Zimbabwe's affairs, steps down.
"We hope he has learnt from his mistakes if he is going to take any ambassadorial role in Africa," said Matonga of Blair. "We hope Gordon Brown will have a different approach (towards Zimbabwe), a more humane approach to things than Tony Blair."
But he nevertheless wished Blair "the best in his endeavours." Blair on Thursday announced his resignation after a decade in power.
Zimbabwe's relations with Britain, from which it gained independence in 1980, have nosedived after Harare started seizing white-owned farms seven years ago.
Many were owned by white Zimbabweans who held British citizenship. The southern African nation is in the grip of a eight-year-old recession which has seen inflation soar above 1500 percent and the economy shrink by more than a third.
Long-standing political tensions in the country deteriorated in March when police assaulted opposition leaders and supporters and shot dead an activist as they broke up an anti-government rally.
Mugabe blames the country's problems on the imposition of targeted sanctions against himself and his coterie by Britain and other Western countries, and has repeatedly blamed Blair for reneging on a deal to provide compensation for land reform after the country's independence in 1980. – AFP
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THE MANDELA’S REIGN AGAIN
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THE GRANDSON of Nelson Mandela has become a traditional Xhosa leader in a ceremony witnessed by his grandfather.
Draped in a lion skin, Mandla Mandela was installed as chief of Mvezo Traditional Council. |
The 32-year-old's role will be to act as a community spokesman, preside over local ceremonies and resolve disputes.
Xhosa authorities decided to resurrect the Mandela chieftaincy, which Nelson renounced to become a lawyer and fight white minority rule some 70 years ago.
But the 88-year-old, who retired as president in 1999, said it should go to his grandson.
Mandla, a 32-year-old recent political science graduate, vowed to try to help the people of the rural Eastern Cape, which is one of the nation's poorest regions, before he was installed . "There are a lot of expectations, especially with the surname I carry," he said.
The ceremony took place in Mvezo where Nelson Mandela was born. At least 10 oxen were expected to be slaughtered for visiting dignitaries.
"This is really Nelson's position but because of his advanced age it was decided that the honour would be bestowed on his successor," said Patekile Holomisa, head of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa. "That my grandson has taken the chieftaincy I was supposed to have, that he is to rule here at Mvezo will make me sleep forever a happy man in my grave," Mandela said in Xhosa during the ceremony. "I love him so much.
He is very humble man and proud of his traditions." Nelson Mandela's last surviving son, Mandla's father, died two years ago.
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