Alternative Africa

Top Menu

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

logo

Alternative Africa

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
  • Trump administration carries out 13th, final execution

  • Arsenal, Mesut Ozil ‘reach deal to terminate his £350k-a-week contract

  • Difficult Goodbye: Removal vans pack the remnants of Trump, the Emperor of decadence

  • UK closes all travel corridors over rising covid cases

  • Morocco honours Donald Trump, Jared Kushner

News Now
Home›News Now›UK MP defends meeting with Mugabe

UK MP defends meeting with Mugabe

By alternativeafrica
October 9, 2017
699
0
Share:
Robert Mugabe Nicholas Soames compositeImage copyright Reuters/BBC

Sir Nicholas Soames has defended holding a personal meeting with Robert Mugabe while on a visit to Zimbabwe.

The veteran Conservative MP said he met the president last week to reminisce about his father’s role as the last governor of Southern Rhodesia.

Sir Nicholas said they met for old times’ sake, adding: “It was purely for Auld Lang Syne and I’m glad I did it.”

But Labour MP Kate Hoey called the visit a “body blow” to people who had suffered under the Mugabe regime.

The 93-year-old president has been quoted in Zimbabwean press reports saying Sir Nicholas’s visit showed the British wanted dialogue with his country.

Front pages

Ms Hoey, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe, said it had given him a “huge fillip”.

“You can’t have a private visit which is then front page of the newspapers in Zimbabwe,” she said.

She said she would be urging ministers to make clear the Mid Sussex MP had not been visiting on their behalf.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Nicholas said his father Christopher Soames would not have forgiven him if he had not tried to “call on” the president.

The late Lord Soames – whose father-in-law was wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill – oversaw the transition to the independent state of Zimbabwe in 1979 and 1980.

Sir Nicholas said the UK had “terrible unresolved issues” with Zimbabwe, but described the meeting as “a historic moment for me and my family”.

Responding to Ms Hoey’s criticism that the meeting would “pander to the vanity of a wily and ruthless dictator”, he added: “I met him purely and entirely in a personal capacity – there was no-one present, it was just him and me.”

SHARE ON:
TagsAfricaBreakingNews
Previous Article

My life after office-Sirleaf

Next Article

2018 World Cup: Egypt’s president rewards players ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

alternativeafrica

Related articles More from author

  • News Now

    African World Cup teams to get $500,000 from Caf

    December 1, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Kenya election: Gunshot wounds amid Kisumu clashes

    October 26, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • AfricaHealthNews Now

    More African countries lift lockdown restrictions to arrest faltering economy

    May 4, 2020
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    The Cameroon federation ask for an end to coach Hugo Broos’ contract

    December 5, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Liberia’s Presidential Runoff Is Delayed

    November 6, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Three dead as foreigners flee deadly xenophobia attacks in Soweto

    August 30, 2018
    By alternativeafrica

Leave a reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You might be interested

  • HealthNews Now

    Nigeria begins commercial production of herbal anti-sickle cell drug

  • AfricaAfrikaTVAnne's DiaryFeatureHealthNews Now

    The pain and courage of Crystal Chigbu, the Nigerian woman helping amputee children walk again

  • AfrikaTVHealthNews NowWorld

    New Covid-19 Breakthrough: Nasal spray treatment extremely successful in fighting coronavirus

Timeline

  • January 16, 2021

    Trump administration carries out 13th, final execution

  • January 16, 2021

    Arsenal, Mesut Ozil ‘reach deal to terminate his £350k-a-week contract

  • January 16, 2021

    Difficult Goodbye: Removal vans pack the remnants of Trump, the Emperor of decadence

  • January 16, 2021

    UK closes all travel corridors over rising covid cases

  • January 16, 2021

    Morocco honours Donald Trump, Jared Kushner

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Morocco begins regional integration by connecting Casablanca Airport with High Speed Train

    By alternativeafrica
    January 4, 2020
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • Nigeria: 32,000 capacity Lagos rice mill to start production in 2020

    By alternativeafrica
    December 23, 2019
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail – Future agricultures
    on
    October 16, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail - The Zimbabwean
    on
    October 12, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...
  • Millitants in Central Mali Set Jail Ablaze in Attack Killing Two | taktik(z) GDI (Government Defense ...
    on
    August 11, 2020

    Fifteen gendarmes killed in another attack on Mali camp

    […] attack fol­lowed a January ...
AlternativeAfrica.com is an independent Pan African News Website dedicated primarily to influencing the negative narratives about Africa. We hope to do this by focusing and showcasing the many developmental strides sweeping across the continent.

Read more >>>

Contact Info

  • 22 Laburnum Court, Laburnum Road, Mitcham London, CR4 2NA, United Kingdom
  • +44(0)2036320939 | +44(0)7535019197 | +44(0)7305356327
  • info@alternativeafrica.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Trump administration carries out 13th, final execution

    By alternativeafrica
    January 16, 2021
  • Arsenal, Mesut Ozil ‘reach deal to terminate his £350k-a-week contract

    By alternativeafrica
    January 16, 2021
  • Difficult Goodbye: Removal vans pack the remnants of Trump, the Emperor of decadence

    By alternativeafrica
    January 16, 2021
  • UK closes all travel corridors over rising covid cases

    By alternativeafrica
    January 16, 2021
  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Macron in Ivory Coast to launch anti-terrorism academy

    By alternativeafrica
    December 21, 2019
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail – Future agricultures
    on
    October 16, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail - The Zimbabwean
    on
    October 12, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...

Photostream

    Follow us

    • Home
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
    © Copyright Alternative Africa 2019. All rights reserved.