Mugabe quashes any hopes of peace talks

President Robert Mugabe today dashed hopes of a compromise with the opposition to drag Zimbabwe out of its political and economic chaos.

Speaking at a Heroes Day rally in the capital Harare, Mugabe called on his critics to “repent and re-orientate themselves.

“There cannot be unity with enemies of the people.”

That appeared to kill off any prospect of restarting negotiations with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

South Africa and Nigeria have been trying to get the two parties to the negotiation table for more than a year.

Talks failed after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change refused to recognise Mugabe’s re-election for another six year term last year. The MDC is challenging the results in court, claiming the vote was marred by rigging and intimidation by ruling party militants.

Ignoring their efforts to end the stalemate, Mugabe instead thanked the two African leaders for supporting his rule.

“Despite deliberate attempts by both internal and external forces to destabilise our programme, Zimbabwe has received great support from our African brothers, notably President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria in attempts to find solutions to our own challenges,” he said.

The country is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with official inflation at 370% percent. Black market trading in scarce food and petrol puts inflation closer to 700%.

The deepening economic crisis is blamed partly on the state programme that seized thousands of commercial farms from the white minority for redistribution to black settlers.

The programme is also blamed for greatly exacerbating a hunger crisis that threatens nearly half of the population.

Mugabe blamed the economic crisis on Western sanctions – which mainly target top ruling party officials – and drought, and he promised lavish state spending to revive farming, mining and other industry.

Addressing the 3,000 strong crowd at Heroes Acre cemetery, Mugabe, 79 said his land programme was successful.

“The land reform programme has taken this fight against racism and the disempowerment of our people a step further, and today we are able to speak in convincing terms about the possibility of eradicating poverty, unbalanced development and human suffering,” Mugabe said.

Meanwhile thousands of Zimbabweans were stranded in the capital, unable to travel to visit families because of the fuel and cash shortage gripping the country.

Despite this, Chinese and Russian built MiG supersonic jets flew overhead in salute before Mugabe spoke.