JOHANNESBURG – South African ruling party, the ANC, has responded with fury to the Zimbabwean ageing tyrant president Robert Mugabe’s jibe on the late national icon, Nelson Mandela.
Mugabe blamed Mandela for making too much concessions with whites last week as he buried two of his comrades at Zimbabwe’s National Heroes Acre.
The jibe did not go down very well a number of South Africans, including those in the ANC. In an ANC statement delivered by ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe, the ANC pointed out that the late icon’s wife did ‘not go around assaulting citizens of her host nation’, in reference to Mugabe’s wife who has assaulted people in three different countries.
“Secondly, Mrs Mandela does not displace citizens from their land, leaving them homeless, to build mansions and holiday resorts. Mandela is loved by all South Africans, unlike president Mugabe who is despised by all his people, though he forces them to vote for him through intimidation.
“Mandela’s children are not squatting in Zimbabwe trying to survive and maintain families back home, while Mugabe’s millions are here in South Africa.”
Mantashe asked Mugabe to apologise for his reckless statement.
The nonagenarian also inadvertently revealed his frustrations about his binging sons – Robert Junior and Bellarmine Chatunga, said a report.
Mugabe said that Zimbabwean youths lacked the ideological direction that youths of his own time had.
“Many of our kids, oh no, they go binging in the company of girls. We want to redirect our youths. They should know that the country was fought for,” Mugabe was quoted as saying.
This was the first time that the president spoke about his sons, following his wife Grace’s alleged assault of a young model Gabriella Engels at a Johannesburg hotel.
Grace reportedly used an extension cord to beat Engels while her bodyguards looked on after she allegedly found her (Engels) with Bellarmine Chatunga at a hotel in the leafy suburb of Sandton.
Robert Jnr and Bellarmine Chatunga, who were learning in South Africa were known for notoriety and lavish lifestyles. The duo was recently kicked out of an apartment block in the leafy Sandton after they reportedly engaged in “unacceptable behaviour” that left a security officer at the block with a broken leg and arm, prompting Grace to fly to South Africa to organise alternative accommodation for them.
