NEWS - NAMIBIA | 2013-08-06Hifikepunye Pohamba
Pohamba calls on West to remove Zim sanctions
Shinovene Immanuel
PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba has called on the West to remove the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe following the re-election of President Robert Mugabe last week.
In his congratulatory message contained in a letter to Mugabe dated 4 August, Pohamba described the 89-year old Zimbabwean leader’s re-election as a “resounding victory”.
Mugabe, who has been on the helm of Zimbabwe for the past 33 years, won 61% of the presidential vote compared to his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC-T party who managed a mere 34%.
“We commend the people and political leadership of the Republic of Zimbabwe for having delivered free and peaceful elections as reflected in the reports of the SADC Election Observer Mission and the African Union Election Observer Mission to Zimbabwe.
Pohamba further said that the people of Zimbabwe have once again demonstrated their trust and confidence in the ZANU-PF and in Mugabe’s personal leadership.
“I wish to reaffirm my government’s commitment to working for further deepening and strengthening the excellent bilateral relations and corporation that happily exist between two countries,” Pohamba wrote.
He said now that the election has been declared free and peaceful and the result as representing the will of the people of Zimbabwe, Namibia calls on those countries that have imposed sanctions on the country to respect the people’s verdict.
Zimbabwe was hit by sanctions from many western countries as from 2001, citing political violence, human rights abuses and failure to hold free and fair elections as their motivation.
Mugabe has, over the years, insisted that the sanctions are illegal and blamed the country’s economic collapse on the restrictions, which cost Zimbabwe at least US$42 billion since 2001.
Pohamba’s message comes a few days after South African President Jacob Zuma’s congratulatory letter to Mugabe for his routing of Tsvangirai.
Zuma’s comments, however, attracted criticism from the Democratic Alliance, a South African opposition party, who branded his message as “failing Zimbabweans”.
The UK online newspaper The Guardian reported over the weekend that Mugabe’s re-election victory could force the west to lift sanctions as African monitors seem likely to rubber-stamp the result, which would present western governments with a dilemma.
Britain and the USA have questioned the fairness of the election with the Australian government on Sunday calling for a re-run of the election; warning that they will not lift sanctions unless free and fair polls are held.
Mugabe, who has been on the helm of Zimbabwe for the past 33 years, won 61% of the presidential vote compared to his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC-T party who managed a mere 34%.
“We commend the people and political leadership of the Republic of Zimbabwe for having delivered free and peaceful elections as reflected in the reports of the SADC Election Observer Mission and the African Union Election Observer Mission to Zimbabwe.
Pohamba further said that the people of Zimbabwe have once again demonstrated their trust and confidence in the ZANU-PF and in Mugabe’s personal leadership.
“I wish to reaffirm my government’s commitment to working for further deepening and strengthening the excellent bilateral relations and corporation that happily exist between two countries,” Pohamba wrote.
He said now that the election has been declared free and peaceful and the result as representing the will of the people of Zimbabwe, Namibia calls on those countries that have imposed sanctions on the country to respect the people’s verdict.
Zimbabwe was hit by sanctions from many western countries as from 2001, citing political violence, human rights abuses and failure to hold free and fair elections as their motivation.
Mugabe has, over the years, insisted that the sanctions are illegal and blamed the country’s economic collapse on the restrictions, which cost Zimbabwe at least US$42 billion since 2001.
Pohamba’s message comes a few days after South African President Jacob Zuma’s congratulatory letter to Mugabe for his routing of Tsvangirai.
Zuma’s comments, however, attracted criticism from the Democratic Alliance, a South African opposition party, who branded his message as “failing Zimbabweans”.
The UK online newspaper The Guardian reported over the weekend that Mugabe’s re-election victory could force the west to lift sanctions as African monitors seem likely to rubber-stamp the result, which would present western governments with a dilemma.
Britain and the USA have questioned the fairness of the election with the Australian government on Sunday calling for a re-run of the election; warning that they will not lift sanctions unless free and fair polls are held.
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