Bob must go, says Botswana president

Zimbabwe's 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe should step aside without delay and allow new leadership of a country whose political and economic implosion since 2000 is dragging down the whole of Southern Africa, Botswana President Ian Khama said.

Despite his reputation as one of Africa's most outspoken figures, Khama's remarks are certain to raise hackles in Harare, where factions of the ruling Zanu-PF are locked in a struggle to succeed the only leader Zimbabwe has known.

Asked if Mugabe, who came to power after independence from Britain in 1980, should accept the reality of his advancing years and retire, 63-year-old Khama responded: "Without doubt. He should have done it years ago.

"They have got plenty of people who have got good leadership qualities who could take over," Khama, the UK-born son of Botswana's first president, Seretse Khama, and his British wife, Ruth, said.

"It is obvious that at his age and the state Zimbabwe is in, he's not really able to provide the leadership that could get it out of its predicament," Khama said.

Botswana, the world's largest producer of diamonds, shares 800km of border with Zimbabwe and has felt the full effects of its neighbour's economic collapse under the weight of political violence and hyperinflation since 2000.

Although the economy stabilised in 2009 with the scrapping of the Zimbabwean dollar, a slump in commodity prices over the past two years has triggered a cash crunch that has fed through into unprecedented public anger at Mugabe.

Khama said the instability was damaging Botswana's efforts to wean itself off mining - which accounts for 20% of GDP and 60% of exports - by promoting itself as a regional logistics and services hub.

The unrest was also forcing more and more Zimbabweans to leave the country, he added.

Botswana is home only to an estimated 100000 Zimbabweans - a fraction of the 3 million believed to be in South Africa - although this is still enough to strain public services in a nation of 2.3 million.

Botswana's jails held "significant numbers" of Zimbabweans, Khama said.

"It is a big concern," the British-trained former general said. "It is a problem for all of us in the region - and it is a burden."

Khama did not discuss any specifics of Mugabe's health but said Mugabe looked tired. "We're talking about a 92-year-old man and there's just so much you can do at that age to try to keep up."

Mugabe refers to himself as "fit as a fiddle" and hints at a desire to stay in power until he is 100.

Khama reiterated his government's concerns about the credibility of the elections Mugabe has won in recent years, but said, irrespective of the results, no leader should cling on to power for that long.

"My opinion has always been that 10 years leading any kind of organisation - not just a country or a government, any organisation - is pretty much the maximum," he said.