Mbeki firm on Zim stance
12 June 2008, 15:32
President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday dismissed criticism and defended his government's stance on Zimbabwe.
Replying in the National Assembly to points raised during the debate on his budget vote, Mbeki said there were "some farther afield from us who choose to describe us as a so-called rogue democracy... because we refuse to serve as their subservient klipgooiers [stone throwers] against especially President Robert Mugabe".
"Given all this, government... will continue to engage the Zimbabweans to convey to them our views and feelings about any matter we believe is fundamentally or otherwise at variance with processes that must respect the will of the people," he said.
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Replying in the National Assembly to points raised during the debate on his budget vote, Mbeki said there were "some farther afield from us who choose to describe us as a so-called rogue democracy... because we refuse to serve as their subservient klipgooiers [stone throwers] against especially President Robert Mugabe".
"Given all this, government... will continue to engage the Zimbabweans to convey to them our views and feelings about any matter we believe is fundamentally or otherwise at variance with processes that must respect the will of the people," he said.
SA would continue to insist that the people of Zimbabwe be allowed to freely choose their leaders and government, and refuse to participate in "projects based on the notion that we have a right to bring about 'regime change' in Zimbabwe".
"We will also continue to argue that the people of Zimbabwe will have to unite to extricate their country from the economic crisis in which it is immersed, and that we will contribute everything we can to support the realisation of this objective," Mbeki said. - Sapa
