The diplomatic community were invited to an inauguration ceremony at President Mugabe’s residence. Most of the diplomats were represented and on time. Yet, they were left waiting to shake the President’s hand for seven hours. No refreshments were provided.
The following day the Herald, a newspaper also known as ”the voice of Mugabe”, published a picture of President Mugabe and the new head of the European Commission on the front page. The headline read ”EU: Zimbabwe press is free”. The picture showed Mugabe shaking hands with the European Commission head. The picture had, however, been manipulated to depict Mugabe, who’s a sort man in reality, stretching high above the head of the European Commission delegate bowing down before him. This must had been quite embarassing for the European delegation in the country. The head of the European commission later apologised to the whole diplomatic community for the unfortunate misquotations in the article.
I find it interesting to discover just how far the diplomatic community can stretch for the purpose of maintaining diplomatic ties. At president Mugabe’s sister’s funeral a couple of weeks ago the diplomatic community were also represented. It gave the President the perfect opportunity to tell all diplomats present to ”go to hell!”. And he did. Several times.
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