Robert Mugabe would have rejected the role of World Health Organization goodwill envoy had he been formally asked, his spokesman said on Tuesday, days after state media cheered the Zimbabwean president\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus named Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador on Wednesday at a conference in Uruguay that both men were attending.<\/p>\n
But the appointment was rescinded on Sunday following a backlash from Western donors, rights groups and opposition parties.<\/p>\n
Last Friday, the state-owned Herald celebrated the largely ceremonial appointment as a \u2018New feather in President\u2019s cap\u2019, adding that Mugabe, 93, had accepted the role.<\/p>\n
His spokesman told the same newspaper on Tuesday that Zimbabwe\u2019s sole leader since independence from Britain in 1980 had only heard about the appointment via the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad anything been put to the President … (he) would have found such a request to be an awkward one,\u201d Charamba was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe WHO cannot take back what it never gave in the first place, and as far as he is concerned, all this hullabaloo over a non-appointment is in fact a non-event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charamba did not respond to calls seeking further comment.<\/p>\n
Mugabe\u2019s critics were outraged by Tedros\u2019 announcement, saying he was rewarding a man whose government had presided over the collapse of Zimbabwe\u2019s health system.<\/p>\n
Charamba said the fact that Zimbabwe was a producer and exporter of tobacco, mostly to China, would have meant Mugabe campaigning against a crop that underpins the economy.<\/p>\n
Tobacco is Zimbabwe\u2019s single largest foreign currency earner, bringing in an average $800 million annually in the last four years, according to official data.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be seen to be playing goodwill ambassador in respect of an agency which has a well-defined stance on tobacco growing and tobacco selling, that would have been a contradiction,\u201d Charamba said.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Robert Mugabe would have rejected the role of World Health Organization goodwill envoy had he been formally asked, his spokesman said on Tuesday, days after state media cheered the Zimbabwean president\u2019s appointment. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus named Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador on Wednesday at a conference in Uruguay that both men were attending. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":295840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[562,1348,1511],"yoast_head":"\n