Mugabe labels top US official “an idiot” the reports say

President Robert Mugabe described the US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs as “an idiot” after their African summit in Libya, Zimbabwe’s state-owned Herald newspaper reports on 8 July.


Mr Mugabe said nothing came out of his talks with Mr Johnnie Carson – his first meeting with a US government official for many years.

According to the Herald newspaper, Mr Mugabe said: “You wouldn't speak to an idiot of that nature. I was very angry with him, and he thinks he could dictate to us what to do.”

He went on saying the Southern African Development Community supported the unity government.

However, “You have the little fellow like Carson wanting to say ‘You do this, you do that'.

“Who is he?

“I hope he was not speaking for Obama, I told him he was a shame, a great shame, being an African American.”

According to the BBC, the Obama administration has been sceptical of the power-sharing government formed between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, who had been lobbying for aid and re-engaging Zimbabwe with Western leaders last month in United States and Europe.

Mr Tsvangirai said the country needed $7bn to revive its economy.

President Obama committed $73 million, but said: “It will not be going to the government directly because we continue to be concerned about consolidating democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”

Mr Mugabe was also not fond of Mr Carson’s predecessor, Jendayi Frazer, who is the same as Mr Carson, a black, the Independent said.

He described Jendayi as “a little American girl trotting around the globe like a prostitute” in last May, after she suggested the Movement for Democratic Change had won the disputed national presidential election in March 2008.

Apart from Jendayi, Mugabe also called former British Prime Minister Tony Blair a “B-Liar”.

Bofore Tsvangirai joined the coalition government, Mugabe had referred to him as “Fatcheeks” and a tea boy, a lowly domestic worker, according to the Independent.

Mr Mugabe is known for his vitriolic outbursts against his critics, such as former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee, who is a harsh black critic of Mugabe’s autocratic rule.

Mugabe described him as a “house Negro” for white western leaders.

McGee rejected the idea Zimbabwe needed more support from donors to restore the rule of law, respect for human rights and to guarantee basic freedoms of speech and association.

He said: “It doesn’t cost anything…to have judges apply the law equally. Dropping phantom politically motivated prosecutions is free. Stopping the arrests of political activists and independent journalists is also free.”