Mugabe shouted down by his opponents
Opposition MPs heckled and jeered Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe today as he opened the country’s parliament.
The unprecedented scenes – broadcast live on national television – set the stage for a combative forum, even as Mugabe and his rivals try to negotiate sharing power following disputed elections.
The tension, with more hostile MPs than loyalists of the embattled leader, may be a glimpse into a future of bitter debates and close votes in parliament, previously a rubber-stamp irrelevance.
With a show that demonstrated his love-hate relationship with former coloniser Britain, Mugabe arrived in an open-topped vintage Rolls Royce escorted by police on horseback sporting plumed pith helmets and then proceeded to lambast the West.
He accused Britain and the United States of unleashing “a vicious onslaught” against his rule.
“Regrettably we have noticed the hand of our enemies to thwart us” with rising prices of food imports from its neighbours, he said.
“Food is the latest weapon in their regime change agenda.”
Mugabe’s speech often was drowned out by jeers of his opponents, who clapped and sang songs deriding him and his ZANU-PF party. “ZANU is rotten. You are great liars,” they sang.
Looking annoyed, Mugabe first raised his voice then raced through the final lines of his speech.
Opposition MPs presented a petition pointing out that the opening of the parliament was “a clear breach” of the agreement that led to power-sharing talks.
It called Mugabe “the illegitimate usurper of the people’s will.”
The petition also condemned the arrests of opposition legislators. When MPs reported yesterday to be sworn in, two were arrested. A third who is on the team negotiating power-sharing was arrested at his home early today.
Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the arrests are an attempt to subvert his party’s slight majority in parliament.
Some 2,000 opposition activists remain jailed in Zimbabwe months after March 29 elections where they garnered more votes than Mugabe and his party.
Mugabe reacted violently, unleashing soldiers, police and militants accused of killing nearly 200 opposition members, beating thousands more and forcing tens of thousands from homes set ablaze.
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF had controlled parliament since independence in 1980. In March, Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change won 100 of the 210 seats. Mugabe’s party won 99 seats and a splinter opposition faction won 10. An independent who broke away from Mugabe’s party has the remaining seat.
Parliament’s first order of business will be to approve funds for government ministries and projects – a budget vote that normally would have been completed months ago. So government business will remain largely paralysed until MPs meet again in October.
If the opposition continues to win support from the splinter faction, it would have the simple majority needed to block those funds. But if there is deadlock, Mugabe could dissolve the assembly and rule by decree. It is unlikely the opposition could summon the two-thirds vote needed to impeach Mugabe.
