President Robert Mugabe Wednesday described members of the Kalanga tribe, mostly found in Matabeleland South, as uneducated and accused them of flocking to South Africa where they Are engaged in criminal activities.
BY STAFF REPORTER
Mugabe was speaking in Harare at the end of a special Sadc summit on industrialisation where he said South African President Jacob Zuma should not be made to the shoulder blame for recent xenophobic attacks in his country alone.
He said most foreigners in South Africa, including Kalangas, were involved in criminal activities in South Africa.
“For our province of Matabeleland South, the men there and boys, if you have not been to South Africa, you would haven’t been to a place of good life and it doesn’t matter what you do there, each and everyone wants to have some method of escaping from home and get to South Africa somehow,” Mugabe said.
He said most Zimbabweans were illegally going to South Africa and acquired new names and identities pretending to be Zulus or Xhosas.
“It’s not for South Africa to resolve alone, it’s for us the neighbouring countries,” he said.
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“Our people shouldn’t have the instinct of rushing to South Africa, even those who went to universities they want to remain there and I suppose it’s the life which attracts them.”
He said during the summit, Zuma explained what happened and gave spell out steps that his government was taking to encourage South Africans to be tolerant.
“There are people who think there is heaven in South Africa. Those people make the reality of South Africa worse,” Mugabe added.
However, the president disputed claims by South Africa that pictures of people being burnt alive during the xenophobic attacks were from the 1980S.
Mugabe said he and other African leaders were convinced the pictures, including one of a Mozambican national, Emmanuel Sithole who was stabbed to death were recent.
During the question and answer session, Mugabe’s long winding answers seemed to have unsettled delegates with his chief of protocol, Munyaradzi Kajese attempting without success to signal him to wind up.
Zuma this week said 4000 Zimbabweans were in South African prisons for various crimes.
