News / National
'Mugabe did not resign'
14 Jan 2018 at 06:36hrs | Views
EXILED former cabinet minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has warned that Zimbabwe will soon become the new Somalia if the international community does not move in to restore constitutionalism in Harare, NewZimbabwe.com reported.
Since the overthrow of then president Mohamed Siad Barre in the early 1990s Somalia - a country on the horn of Africa - has become a catch word for state collapse, civil war, clan clashes, and starvation.
Prof Moyo said Zimbabwe would soon be described in similar terms under new President Emmerson Mnangagwa who, last November, replaced long-term ruler Robert Mugabe after a military revolt.
Moyo, a loyalist of Mugabe who managed to evade the military arrests which followed the coup, said Zimbabweans will soon be fighting to overthrow the military government which took office end of last year.
"If you don't intervene when there has been such an outrageous, brazen attack on a constitutional order, you are simply opening the floodgates to conflict," Moyo told Reuters in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location.
He added, "If they don't act, just as the sun will rise tomorrow, Zimbabwe will be another Somalia. There will be bloodshed."
This was Moyo's second interview with world media in a week as he ramps up pressure against the new Harare government. Earlier in the week he appeared on the BBC's HARDTalk programme to condemn Mugabe's ouster as unconstitutional.
The veteran leader, now 93, was thought to have initially resisted pressure to step down but his letter of resignation was then handed over to Parliament as legislators moved to impeach him.
The letter was read by Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda on November 21. Neither Mugabe nor his wife, Grace, have appeared in public or said anything since then.
However, Moyo queried the resignation in his Reuters interview.
"The president was alleged to have resigned. There is no evidence," he said.
"It is completely unsustainable for anyone to say Mugabe resigned voluntarily when we know the army took over all institutions of the state and confined him to his residence.
"You have to be applying a Banana Republic model to say he resigned."
The former higher education minister insisted that although the public is presently frozen in military fear, soon or later they will avenge Mugabe's removal and demand the rule of law.
However, his criticism of the government has been dismissed by presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, as those of a bitter person stuck in denial when he gave the first interview to BBC.
Since the overthrow of then president Mohamed Siad Barre in the early 1990s Somalia - a country on the horn of Africa - has become a catch word for state collapse, civil war, clan clashes, and starvation.
Prof Moyo said Zimbabwe would soon be described in similar terms under new President Emmerson Mnangagwa who, last November, replaced long-term ruler Robert Mugabe after a military revolt.
Moyo, a loyalist of Mugabe who managed to evade the military arrests which followed the coup, said Zimbabweans will soon be fighting to overthrow the military government which took office end of last year.
"If you don't intervene when there has been such an outrageous, brazen attack on a constitutional order, you are simply opening the floodgates to conflict," Moyo told Reuters in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location.
He added, "If they don't act, just as the sun will rise tomorrow, Zimbabwe will be another Somalia. There will be bloodshed."
This was Moyo's second interview with world media in a week as he ramps up pressure against the new Harare government. Earlier in the week he appeared on the BBC's HARDTalk programme to condemn Mugabe's ouster as unconstitutional.
The veteran leader, now 93, was thought to have initially resisted pressure to step down but his letter of resignation was then handed over to Parliament as legislators moved to impeach him.
The letter was read by Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda on November 21. Neither Mugabe nor his wife, Grace, have appeared in public or said anything since then.
However, Moyo queried the resignation in his Reuters interview.
"The president was alleged to have resigned. There is no evidence," he said.
"It is completely unsustainable for anyone to say Mugabe resigned voluntarily when we know the army took over all institutions of the state and confined him to his residence.
"You have to be applying a Banana Republic model to say he resigned."
The former higher education minister insisted that although the public is presently frozen in military fear, soon or later they will avenge Mugabe's removal and demand the rule of law.
However, his criticism of the government has been dismissed by presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, as those of a bitter person stuck in denial when he gave the first interview to BBC.
Source - newzimbabwe
