President Robert Mugabe has made a last-minute decision not to attend a cultural festival in India despite making the more-than-7 000-kilometre trip there, it was announced late on Wednesday.
Mugabe, 92, was due to be guest of honour at the World Culture Festival in New Delhi but has called off his appearance due to “substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements”, presidential spokesperson George Charamba said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The cancellation follows communication from organisers of the [World Culture] Festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event,” read the statement.
Other reports however say Mugabe was forced to abandon his dodgy visit after he was shocked to discover he was the only head of state and government in attendance.
Former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo now in charge of Higher Education and famous for ‘breaking’ Mugabe’s fall at Harare airport last year, was scrambling for cover after vigorously supporting the veteran leader’s decision to travel.
Before it emerged Mugabe would be returning home, Moyo said on Twitter: “People are entitled to their views but rants against Pres Mugabe’s India visit show many are either uninformed or malicious or both!
“What to some is a World Culture Festival in India, is to Zim a strategic opportunity for Pres Mugabe to advance the national interest!”
And as State owned media reported that the Zanu PF leader was hightailing it back home, Moyo wrote: “Detractors who roundly denounced the trip in the first place are celebrating its cancellation as if they caused it!”
Mugabe will now return to Zimbabwe “in a couple of days,” the state ZBC broadcaster reported in a late news bulletin. He had already come in for fierce criticism back home for going to the little-known event. India’s own president Pranab Mukherjee had said he would not attend, according to The Hindu newspaper.
Despite the fact that this was a culture festival, Zimbabwe’s Promotion of Culture Minister Abednigo Ncube was not part of the delegation travelling with the president.
Commenting on the cancelled appearance, media watchdog @ZimMediaReview asked: “Shouldn’t such assessments be made BEFORE he travels?”
Last year Mugabe delivered the wrong speech at the opening of a new session of parliament, repeating an address he had given to the legislature the previous month. Mugabe read the 25-minute-long speech through to the end, apparently unaware that he was delivering the same text he presented during his state of the nation address.
“There has been a mix-up of speeches resulting in a situation where… the president delivered the wrong speech,” said presidential spokesman George Charamba.
Political analyst Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya on Twitter said “So the President realized that the trip was not properly arranged when he was in India. At this rate where can he end up? From wrong speech to wrong to trip; Zim Pres and Zim politics. Now, this is rotten.”
Sources: News24.com/ZBC/Various
