Renowned United Kingdom based Zimbabwean lawyer and political commentator Brighton Mutebuka President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is feeling the heat from Southern African Development Community (SADC) following shamed elections.
Mutebuka says by bad-mouthing Zambia to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mnangagwa is trying to pre-empty Hichilema’s movement on SADC election report during the forthcoming summit in Harare.
“Speculation – is ED pre-empting potential movement from
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on the SEOM Report during the forthcoming SADC Summit in Harare on what we all long thought had been kicked into the long grass?
“Why is he prickly & directing his ire at HH when all has seemed quiet these days,” he says.
He lambasts Mnangagwa’s sentiments:
“Utterly shameful. Absolutely no self-respect there. It’s a new low in International Relations within the context of African solidarity & brotherhood.
“Takarasima kuSt Petersburg to castigate your very own neighbour who hosted you during the liberation struggle & where you still have a home?
“All in the name of ingratiating oneself & offering the country’s minerals to Putin for a song? And still retain the audacity to call others puppets?
“So the perverse logic is that puppetry only takes place in relations with the West & not the East?”
Mutebuka adds that by publicly exposing
Hichilema to ridicule via accusing him as being a lackey of the West to Putin, ED is actually seeking to intimidate HH, so that he capitulates & refrains from pursuing whatever path he was on geo-politically, regionally or internationally.
“ED is effectively seeking to silence HH by putting him on notice via a chilling warning – that it’s game on, we consider you a traitor, and are after you!
“Presumably, that’s what ED is seeking. He stole an election & Hichilema
stood strong in exposing that theft.
“He found it offensive & unusual given SADC’s propensity to rubber stamp such shenanigans,” he says.
To Zambians Mutebuka says they should distinguish ED’s roguish & undiplomatic behaviour & Zimbabwe’s official position.
“You should never conflate individual with national culpability.
“The fact that ED is currently extremely powerful doesn’t detract from his culpability!
“We expect your President to stay the course & do his duty.
“Regardless of what he chooses to do, he should expect a present from Putin in the form of pro Lungu troll factories & an unrelenting bots led disinformation campaign,” he adds.
Zwnews
