"Show me the homeless," Mugabe challenges

Desperate and distanced Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe, exposed how out of touch he is with what's going on in the country he claims to lead.

Responding to journalists questions in Sirta, Libya, where he is attending an AU meeting, the ageing leader denied that his infamous cleanup had made anyone homeless,

"There is no demolition campaign. It's a clean-up operation and that's what all countries do," adding,"Where are they [the homeless]? We don't know about those. It's just nonsense."

Where are the homeless? If Operation Murambatsvina targeted both illegal markets and homes as you've conceded, where did the people who lived in those homes go? Have you been to Caledonia Farm from where that Patricia Walsh sent us harrowing descriptions of wanton hunger, sickness and death? What about Porter farm, how many years ago Mr. President did you allow it to be set up as holding camp when the problem of street people bothered you? May I remind you that all those people that you and you government have been referring to "squatters" throughout the years, are homeless. What about this?

You can't let you deputy information minister challenge Tony Blair to come to Zimbabwe when you yourself haven't to the Zimbabwe that most of your citizens live in.

I digress. I set out to show you how out of touch Mugabe is. Don't mistake the tone in his quote to smack of denial; it's much worse, this is evidence of ignorance. In the same way he can claim Zimbabwe doesn't need food aid , the Zimbabwe he's in doesn't have any homeless. Yet this is the man to whom our entire nation looks for leadership.

Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Cleanup Operation, Human Rights,