Tutu says Robert Mugabe needs face-saving options

LONDON – South African Nobel peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu said on Wednesday Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe needed face-saving options for there to be a chance of him stepping aside.

Tutu said the replacement of Tony Blair by Gordon Brown as prime minister of Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial ruler, could help the situation but much depended on negotiations to resolve the crisis being mediated by South Africa. “A change of cast might have an important bearing on how things develop.I would hope that there might just be a way of providing face savers that would enable people to exit without feeling that they had lost a great deal of personal stature,” he said.”We need to provide that for the sake of the people and it may be that (Britain’s) new prime minister just might have a way of saying things that would be slightly more acceptable.”Tutu told Reuters in an interview.Relations between Britain and Zimbabwe have reached a low.Mugabe, 83 and in power since independence in 1980, has accused Britain of trying to overthrow him.Nampa-Reuters”A change of cast might have an important bearing on how things develop.I would hope that there might just be a way of providing face savers that would enable people to exit without feeling that they had lost a great deal of personal stature,” he said.”We need to provide that for the sake of the people and it may be that (Britain’s) new prime minister just might have a way of saying things that would be slightly more acceptable.”Tutu told Reuters in an interview.Relations between Britain and Zimbabwe have reached a low.Mugabe, 83 and in power since independence in 1980, has accused Britain of trying to overthrow him.Nampa-Reuters