Robert Mugabe’s Deputy Submits Correct Speech to Zimbabwe Parliament

Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has submitted to parliament a speech that President Robert Mugabe was supposed to deliver a day after the 91-year-old leader accidentally gave the wrong one.

On September 15, Robert Mugabe read a state-of-the-nation address he gave in August.

The error has been blamed on a mix-up in the president’s office.

It took Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa two hours to submit the correct version because of demands from opposition members of parliament for an apology.

Today’s extraordinary session was called so that Robert Mugabe’s speech could be officially recorded. The state-run Herald newspaper has printed the speech in full.

It says that the government plans to introduce legislation requiring senior public officials to declare assets as part of measures to tackle corruption.

The speech mix-up has prompted questions from the opposition over whether President Robert Mugabe remains fit to lead.

The state broadcaster had canceled its live feed of the opening of parliament on September 15 fearing further disruptions.

Opposition members of parliament belonging to Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) reportedly kept quiet during the speech, as Zanu-PF supporters clapped at regular intervals.

However MDC spokesman Obert Gutu later told the Reuters news agency that it was “a historic blunder”, adding: “Anyone who is still of a sound mind would have quickly picked it up that the speech was the wrong one.”

Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, is Africa’s oldest leader.