Speculation mounted when government officials refused to reveal why Mugabe’s jet had visited Dubai.
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The Zimbabwean president has been in charge since 1987, having been prime minister since the country declared independence from Britain in 1980 Is Mugabe Gearing Up For Election?
“Surely, they can take note of the fact that the mission is clear anddeliberate towards causing violence”.
But he said that giving permission when judges know “that it is going to be violent or (there is a) probability that there is going to be violence is to pay reckless disregard to the peace of this country”.
“We have been co-operating with the MDC on several activities in the past few months and this is just a continuation of that process which we think will lead to a coalition of all Zimbabweans who genuinely are committed to national progress”.
As Zimbabwe’s economic woes have deepened this summer amid dollar shortages and rising unemployment, Mugabe’s ZANU-PF Party has faced mounting criticism from grassroots activists and opposition politicians alike.
Reports that Mr Mugabe’s health is on the decline have become common, but he has often said he is as “fit as fiddle”.
They added that there was a crisis of leadership in the country and that far from being stable, the status quo reflected paralysis and regression, with Mugabe “seeking to buy time through empty promises and postponing the inevitable”.
President Mugabe himself, in power for 36 years, seems unfazed by the departures, but there is talk in Zimbabwe of the ‘glue that kept Mugabe in power for so long beginning to come unstuck’.
Some critics point out that in early 2000, Mugabe used the same tacticto force white judges out of the bench at the height of his land reform exercise as he deemed them counter-revolutionaries.
The leader was expected to address a youth meeting at his ruling party’s headquarters later on Saturday.
His latest comments not only seem meant to have a chilling effect on judges – who will think twice before making similar rulings in the future – but appear to tacitly endorse the actions of the police who on August 26, 2016 violently cracked down on the peaceful protests.
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Constitutional lawyer, Alex Magaisa put it this way: “The repressive state is behaving as it always does when faced with a challenge”.
