Pretoria - Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, who has been re-elected as that country's president, will be inaugurated today.
The inauguration ceremony at a 60 000-seater stadium will be attended by several Heads of State and representatives from the Southern African region.
South Africa will be represented by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who will be accompanied by the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. Former President Thabo Mbeki will also be among the delegates attending.
President Jacob Zuma has reiterated South Africa’s readiness to continue to partner with Zimbabwe in pursuit of mutually beneficial cooperation.
Mugabe won the July 31 poll with 61 percent of the vote, beating his arch-rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who received 34 percent of the vote.
Tsvangirai will not be attending the swearing in. He originally filed a petition to the country's top court asking it to nullify the vote, citing widespread rigging and voter intimidation allegations, but dropped the bid last Friday over concerns of not getting a fair trial.
It will be Mugabe's sixth term as president and seventh term as head of the government since Zimbabwe gained its independence from Britain in 1980. According to that country's new constitution, a presidential term is five years and one person cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.
The 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) team, which brokered the coalition government after the disputed 2008 Zimbabwean polls, has largely endorsed the July 31 elections as free, credible, and peaceful. Most countries in Africa, East Asia, Latin America have also congratulated Mugabe on the re-election, while Western countries, led by the United States and Britain, have voiced doubts on the credibility of the poll.
Mugabe will also take over the rotating SADC chair in 2014. The veteran leader, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, has said that he will serve a full five-year term, despite concerns over his health.
The inauguration also comes as new power cuts in the suburbs and a shaky stock market roil the country. In the economic community, concern is also growing over potential government appropriation of foreign banks and mining firms. – SAnews.gov.za-Xinhua
