I am not quitting: Mugabe

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe today denied reports he was considering quitting as part of a deal to end his nation’s political crisis.

“Only a few months ago, the people of Zimbabwe elected me to serve them and it would be absolutely counterrevolutionary for me to step down,” he said during a visit to neighbouring Zambia.

His ruling party officials were reported to have offered a deal to the opposition that would include Mugabe’s retirement and the formation of a power-sharing government.

Mugabe, who led the nation to independence from British colonial rule in 1980, said he would never leave the southern African nation.

“I was born in Zimbabwe and I won’t go anywhere in exile. I will remain in Zimbabwe and I will be buried on Zimbabwean soil,” Mugabe said during a ceremony honouring former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda for his work to liberate southern Africa from colonial rule.

Mugabe won a new six-year term in elections last March that independent observers said were deeply flawed.

His government has also led an often-violent campaign to seize thousands of white-owned farms, calling the campaign a justified struggle by landless blacks to correct colonial era imbalances in land ownership.

“I am not retiring yet until (land reform) is done,” he said today.

The seizures and erratic rains have caused a major food shortage that threatens millions of Zimbabweans with starvation.

Mugabe said his government was not mistreating whites, but added that independence would be meaningless without empowering Zimbabweans with land.

“We are doing justice to our land and there must be equitable distribution of land. There is no freedom without land,” he said.

Kaunda criticised the West for demonising Mugabe instead of trying to negotiate with him.

“Why not go and talk to him and not demonise him,” Kaunda said.