Botswana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Internati onal Cooperation, Pandu Sekelemani, has described the Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as “ridiculous and absurd”.
The description is Gaborone’s response to accusations by the Zimbabwean government that Botswana was training elements loyal to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to destabilize Zimbabwe.
The minister was briefing the Botswana parliament on the outcome of the last extra-ordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The summit was held to try and find a solution to the Zimbabwean political crisis.
Members of the parliament also showed their frustrations with the Zimbabwean president, saying the SADC should have told Robert Mugabe that he was an embarrassment to the region and had compromised the stability of SADC.
Other parliamentarians suggested that Botswana should cut diplomatic ties with Zimbabwe with immediate effect and added that SADC should invite international bodies such as the United Nations (UN) to intervene.
The Foreign Affairs minister suggested that should the power deal between Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai fail, Botswana should resume its stand – of not recognizing Robert Mugabe as the president of Zimbabwe.
Botswana believes that only a re-run of the presidential elections would solve the Zimbabwean political crisis.
Sekelemani believes the allegations were made to divert attention from the real issues in Zimbabwe. The Zanu PF and MDC have still not reached an agreement as to who should be in charge of the Home Affairs Ministry which controls the police.
The minister said Botswana was against the sanctions against Zimbabwe as they would hit the ordinary citizens instead of the top people in Zimbabwe.
