Robert Mugabe, one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, has been
sworn in for a new five-year term as Zimbabwean president.
The 89-year-old Mugabe was sworn in on Thursday during a ceremony
held inside the 60,000-seat National Sports Stadium in Harare, the
nation's capital, packed with tens of thousands of jubilant
supporters.
According to the AP, Mugabe used the event to dismiss allegations
of vote-rigging.
He said that Africa and many nations “hailed our elections as free and fair
and credible” with the exception of “a few dishonest Western
countries.”
“These Western countries hold a different negative view of the
electoral process. Well, there's nothing we can do about their moral
turpitude,” Mugabe said.
“We are not curtsying or bowing to any foreign government,
however powerful it is or whatever filthy lucre it flaunts. We abide
by the judgment of Africa. America dares raise a censorious voice to
contradict Africa's verdict. Who gave them the gift of seeing better
than all of us?”
Mugabe also reiterated his opposition to gay people.
“We hope you damn as much as we damn the doctrine that man can
marry man and woman can marry a woman,” Mugabe said. “Let's not
go against nature.”
(Related: Robert
Mugabe: “Chop off” gay men's heads.)