Mugabe launches campaign, brands rivals traitors

Mugabe launches campaign, brands rivals traitors

BLAST: Mugabe launched election campaign with blast at rivals

• Mugabe makes jokes of his 'illiterate' cabinet

• Mugabe dresses down Mat South governor

• Mugabe belittles opponents as frog and puppet

• Zanu PF politburo endorses Makoni's expulsion

• Mugabe says 'raring to go' as poll nears

• 'I'm nobody's tool,' says Makoni

• Courage Shumba: If you want change, Makoni is your man

• Makoni has expelled himself - Mnangagwa

• War veterans to 'deal harshly' with Makoni

• Zimbabwe's state media attacks Makoni

• Cometh the hour, cometh the Mak

• Major Mbudzi warns CIO against dirty tricks

• Makoni guns for Mugabe's job

• Makoni humiliated as Zanu PF rejects bid for MP

• Makoni's bid for MP riles ministers

• Makoni files papers to stand for MP

• Zanu PF politburo meets over looming split

• Mugabe's fury as Nkomo, Sibanda clash at congress

By Torby Chimhashu

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe kicked off his bid for a sixth term with a blistering attack on his opponents Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai, labelling them "bootlicking British stoogies, political witches and prostitutes".

In a televised address to party delegates and candidates for the March 29 polls, the veteran leader tore into Makoni, his former finance minister, whom he dismissed as having "shown his incompetence" during the country's independence war against white minority rule.

Both Tsvangirai, leader of a faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Makoni, are Mugabe's opponents in the crucial plebiscite.

Mugabe said: "There is no-one outside there who is greater than you. Blair and Brown are not greater than you. When it comes to Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans.

"Zanu PF carries the voice of the people and we will damn bootlicking British stoogies, traitors, sell-outs, political witches, political charlatans, political prostitutes and two headed political figures."

Mugabe, 84, dismissed Makoni as a coward who posed no threat to Zanu PF and himself in the elections because "he had shown his incompetence during the liberation struggle".

During the war, said Mugabe, Makoni was the chief representative for the whole of Europe while Zimbabwe's envoy to China, Frederick Shava, was the emissary to London.

Raged Mugabe: "Makoni is saying let's review the land reform. We thought he was learning while we were fighting. He was our representative in Europe but he never wanted to go to any country at all. Shava would come to Maputo but him never. Even at Makoni (his rural home) he never wanted to go."

He said the former Politburo member who announced his candidacy on February 5 was working with agents of "regime change" because he had gone behind the resolutions of the Zanu PF congress to declare his interest in the country's top job.

Mugabe raged: "We cannot be decent people if we go behind congress and make decisions outside structures. Do you put yourself first or the people? If you do that (put yourself first) then you are a failure.

"You were a coward yesterday. How come you are showing courage today? It's not about clamouring for leadership to make money. Genuine leadership is what we want for the benefit of our people.

"I don't want to cling onto power but people decided that I should carry on with the values of our liberation struggle. We have a policy of competition in Zanu PF and everyone is free to contest whether it's in their districts, council so on and so forth."

He also railed at Tsvangirai, his nemesis for the past eight years, accusing him of promising to return the land to displaced white farmers.

Mugabe urged Zimbabweans not to trust the MDC and its leadership, branding a beneficiary of donations by the British government.

"People cannot trust you when you engage the enemy and receive the money from those who oppressed us. Foreigners are coming back into Zimbabwe thinking that the MDC is going to win. It won't happen," said Mugabe.

The 84 year-old leader faces a litmus test in his bid to retain power when he faces Makoni and Tsvangirai who are both promising a quick economic turnaround if elected.

Zimbabwe is in the middle of an unprecedented economic recession blamed on Mugabe's economic mismanagement and corruption, but the octogenarian leader blames targeted sanctions imposed on him and his inner circle by western countries for the meltdown.
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