Mandela Expresses Anger At Mugabe

May 7, 2000

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (PANA) - Former President Nelson Mandela has slammed
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, labelling him a tyrant who has held on
to power for too long.

Mandela, who launched the global partnership for Children of the United
Nation's Children Fund with his wife Graca Machel in hannesburg on Saturday,
said some African leaders had liberated their countries, but had then
overstayed their welcome.

"They want to die in power because they have committed crimes. The tyrant of
the day can be destroyed by you and I, he said.

He said leaders like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Pompeii, and Adolf
Hitler had also been brought down by the ordinary masses.

Asked by reporters whether he was specifically referring to Mugabe, Mandela
snapped back:

"Everybody here knows who I am talking about".

Mandela, who has been outspoken about Mugabe in the past, is strongly
involved in trying to resolve the armed conflict in Burundi.

Mugabe, who is facing his biggest crisis since coming to power more than 20
years ago, has come under enormous criticism from human rights organisations
and opposition political parties in South Africa.

President Thabo Mbeki has also been slammed for failing to rebuke Mugabe
over the crisis of human and political rights in Zimbabwe, which has
impacted on South Africa s economic stability.

Mbeki said his government is still working to resolve the land issue in
Zimbabwe without using bullying tactics to influence Mugabe.

"We must do this without arrogance, without seeking to impose ourselves on
anybody and without the intoxication of the delusion of the exercise of
power we neither have nor desire.

"We must do what we have to, with the courage, the tenacity, the humanity
and the humility which belong to those who genuinely believe that they are
their brother's and their sister's keeper," he said
in an address on Thursday night.



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