Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Mugabe: Why the West Needs to Change Its Approach

/

One day after taking the oath of office as president following Zimbabwe's violence-plagued, one-man election runoff, Robert Mugabe arrived in Egypt Monday to attend the summit of African Union countries. As the meeting began, Kenya's prime minister said the African Union should bar Mugabe from the summit.

Later, the U.S. proposed a draft resolution calling on the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms and travel embargo on Zimbabwe and freeze the assets of specific Zimbabwean individuals and companies. While the international community decides what action, if any, to take against Mugabe and what many see as his illegitimate claim to power, one person who knows Robert Mugabe as well as anyone outside his tight, inner circle says it's not necessarily Mugabe who should change.

Heidi Holland, a South African journalist who was given an opportunity to interview the reclusive Robert Mugabe late last year — which she wrote about in Dinner with Mugabe, talks about why the West must change its approach to him.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.