HARARE - A ship carrying an assortment of arms destined for Zimbabwe, which has been refused to dock in South Africa, is now heading for Angola, a friendly country to Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship.

Angola president Eduardo dos Santos, who fiercely defended Mugabe at the SADC extra-ordinary summit last weekend,   is expected to give the go ahead for the ship to dock and then offload the arms. The arms will then be transported to Zimbabwe by road, without any hassles.

 

 

The vessel, An Yue Jiang, left the South African port of Durban late Friday after the Durban high court ruled that it could not dock in South Africa.

The ship is now going to dock in Luanda. As soon as there seemed to be trouble with the authorities, the ship started heading to Luanda port even before the court had handed down judgement in the matter.

The court case was filed by the South African Litigation Centre which sought an interdict against the issue of the conveyance permit. The ship is said to be laden with three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 3,000 mortar rounds and mortar tubes, according to the inventory.

China has continued to play a key role in propping up Mugabe’s armoury, which has been used to bludgeon Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe is currently mired in political tensions over the refusal by Mugabe to announce presidential election results which he has lost.

Mugabe told an Independence Day celebration in the capital, Friday, that he would never allow the MDC to rule Zimbabwe. He claimed there was imperialist plot to throw money at the MDC to effect illegal regime change. He said Zimbabwe will never be a British colony again.