Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Reads Wrong Speech

“President Mugabe’s delivery of a wrong speech in parliament yesterday is a fairly common mistake that leaders make at local and worldwide forums”, Zindoga said.

“The mix-up happened in his secretarial office”, spokesman George Charamba was quoted as saying by the government-owned Herald newspaper.

It was the same speech regarding Zimbabwe’s struggling economy Mugabe, who’s ruled the country since it was recognized 35 years ago, gave during his state of the nation address August. 25, according to the BBC.

Mugabe angrily withdrew Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth, a club of former British colonies, in 2003 following a public fall-out over human rights abuses, electoral theft, violence as well the land reform programme.

“In fact if Zimbabwe was a democracy, Parliament was supposed to go and invoke Section 96 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe”, said Obert Gutu, spokesman for the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Harare.

Earlier parliament suspended live television and radio broadcasting of Mugabe’s speech after the MDC threatened to disrupt the event.

Charamba said the “error is sincerely regretted and corrective measures are being considered”.

This is not the first time the president’s political opponents have summoned the matter of his health to challenge his leadership.

But during the speech, the MDC members sat quietly, while ruling Zanu-PF party supporters clapped at regular intervals.

Before the 91-year-old president spoke, the parliamentary speaker also warned against disrupting proceedings.

President Mugabe arrived at parliament in Harare in a vintage black Rolls Royce vehicle.

However, MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese raised a point of order notifying Mudenda that some opposition lawmakers had received “death threats from unknown people”.