Mugabe Attacks Jews, Urges Whites to Leave
Sep 02, 2001 12:00 AM
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has accused Jews of trying to shut down businesses in Zimbabwe and said it would be "a good thing" if white industrialists were to leave the country, the state-controlled press reported yesterday.
"Jews in South Africa, working in cahoots with their colleagues here, want our textile and clothing factories to close down," Mugabe charged. "They want Zimbabwe and Bulawayo to remain with warehouses to create business for South African firms," he added, during a visit to a textile company owned by a prominent Jewish family in the western city of Bulawayo.
The textile company went into liquidation earlier this year and attempted to relocate in neighboring Botswana because of the harsh business conditions created by Zimbabwe's economic crisis. The move was stopped, however, when a band of so-called war veterans invaded the factory and assaulted directors at a board meeting.
Mugabe drew accusations of anti-Semitism in 1992 when he declared that white farmers were so "hard-hearted, you would think they were Jews." He refused to apologize.