Mugabe vows to maintain military spending

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe yesterday said military spending would always be a priority to ensure that Zimbabwe’s forces are able to confront “imperialistic efforts to destabilise the nation”.

“We should always maintain a high level of preparedness in order to safeguard our national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Mugabe said in a speech to mark the 24th anniversary of the creation of Zimbabwe’s defence forces. “We should … remain vigilant and wary of increasingly desperate and dangerous imperialistic efforts to destabilise our nation,” he said.”Government will always continue to give priority to the defence forces training and equipment programme in order to ensure the existence of a credible defence system capable of defending the gains of our hard-won independence.”The Zimbabwean military was active in the Democratic Republic of Congo where Mugabe deployed more than 10 000 troops to shore up government forces of assassinated leader Laurent Kabila and then his son Joseph, from 1998 to 2002.In June, Zimbabwe’s parliament was told that the defence ministry had bought 12 fighter jets and 100 military vehicles from China, at an estimated cost of around US$200 million.- Nampa-AFP”We should … remain vigilant and wary of increasingly desperate and dangerous imperialistic efforts to destabilise our nation,” he said.”Government will always continue to give priority to the defence forces training and equipment programme in order to ensure the existence of a credible defence system capable of defending the gains of our hard-won independence.”The Zimbabwean military was active in the Democratic Republic of Congo where Mugabe deployed more than 10 000 troops to shore up government forces of assassinated leader Laurent Kabila and then his son Joseph, from 1998 to 2002.In June, Zimbabwe’s parliament was told that the defence ministry had bought 12 fighter jets and 100 military vehicles from China, at an estimated cost of around US$200 million.- Nampa-AFP