(Last Updated on January 28, 2016 by Editor)
ZIMBABWE – Zanu PF Member of Parliament for Makonde Kindness Paradza says had it been possible, the current African Union (AU) chairperson President Robert Mugabe would have been awarded a second term.
Paradza who is the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs chairperson, led a delegation of MPs to Ethiopia recently.
The MPs are said to have travelled to Ethiopia on a fact finding mission and reported, on their return, that the AU staff admired Mugabe’s leadership qualities.
Paradza told ZTV news this week that the majority of African Ambassadors and AU commissioners based in Ethiopia would have preferred Mugabe to be given another term as chairman “or be given a role to guide the current crop of African leaders in fulfilling outstanding goals of the organisation.
The majority of African ambassadors in Addis Ababa and AU commissioners had a consensus that if it was possible, President Mugabe would have been given a second term as chairman or assume any other supreme role to fulfill the Pan-African vision of the continental body, said Paradza, a former journalist.
He also said President Mugabe was credited for successfully spearheading a number of initiatives which brought back the AU union on the world map.
He (Mugabe) chaired the Ebola high level conference to curb the epidemic, the Sino-Africa Summit and led the AU to effectively deal with conflicts arising in Africa, Paradza said.
As per tradition, Mugabe will step down as the AU chair at the forthcoming summit to be held in Addis Ababa this after his one year term.