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Robert Mugabe has launched an astonishing rant against Britain in the run up to next week’s Zimbabwean elections, describing it as a “very cold, uninhabitable country with small houses.”
Speaking at a rally in Mutare, the Zimbabwean President accused exiles of using him as a ticket to gain asylum abroad and urged them to come home, claiming the British government no longer wants them.
He also promised a new term for his Zanu PF party would see more jobs in infrastructure development and mining.
Robert Mugabe hopes to lure Zimbabwean exiles home from 'cold, uninhabitable Britain' with promises of new jobs
NewZimbabwe reports him as saying: “Others... said sanctions are biting, companies are closing, there are no jobs. They included nurses; they went to Britain during [Tony] Blair’s time, and Blair used that to blame my government, said that these people are running from Mugabe’s evil regime.
“If you said ‘Mugabe’, they would just say ‘come in, come in’… But see now, they [the UK government] are saying these people are too many, they are causing tension in Britain, let them go back.”
The 89-year-old then continued his efforts to woo back the exiled populace by threatening to behead homosexuals.
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He repeated earlier claims that homosexuals are “worse than dogs and pigs” and emphasised he would deal ruthlessly with them, Zimbabwe’s Newsday reported.
He told the crowd: “If you take men and lock them in a house for five years and tell them to come up with two children and they fail to do that, then we will chop off their heads.”
Mugabe also dismissed demands it should be treated as a human rights issue and attacked Barack Obama’s stance on homosexuality.
Obama has called on African governments to give homosexuals equal rights and decriminalise their activities.
Mugabe said: “Then we have this American president, Obama, born of an African father, who is saying we will not give you aid if you don’t embrace homosexuality,” the Zanu-PF Herald newspaper reported.
He added: “We ask, was he born out of homosexuality? We need continuity in our race, and that comes from the woman, and no to homosexuality. John and John, no; Maria and Maria, no.
“They are worse than dogs and pigs. I keep pigs and the male pig knows the female one.”