Yesterday’s decision by the South African cabinet to withhold certain aid to Zimbabwe until a representative government is in place is highly commendable. This along with the strong message that they sent to Mugabe et al that this country is running out of patience with our neighbour’s leaders is long overdue.
We can only hope and pray that the rest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) seizes our initiative and jumps on board. Up until now it has been Botswana taking on Zimbabwe single-handedly.
Vital however, in breaking this power-sharing deadlock, has to be a solution which ensures that Tsvangirai and the MDC, as part of their cabinet posts allocation, take control of Home Affairs and Finance for the following reasons:
• It will afford the MDC de facto control of the country thereby achieving international recognition. Without achieving this it is pointless even reaching agreement because recovery can’t commence in earnest if nobody of substance will underwrite it.
• It will also end the reign of terror because the police will return to fulfilling the ordinary function of a police force rather than acting as Mugabe’s political battering ram. This will normalise the country and restore law and order.
Zanu-PF and Mugabe cannot have failed to take notice of the ever-increasing unrest in Zimbabwe with more and more interest groups taking to the street in protest. The situation is becoming so untenable that even doctors and other medical staff feel compelled to express their outrage at the collapse of healthcare in that country, the seriousness of which must be seen in the light of a cholera epidemic which has broken out.
While it is our responsibility to assist our fellow Africans during these times of severe hardship we must not lose sight of the fact that most of the damages have been self-inflicted by Mugabe and the Zanu-PF. Moreover, rather than picking up the tab for the wasteland that they have created, it is South Africa and the rest of the SADC countries who are paying the bills.
President Motlanthe needs to offer Zimbabweans the carrot and Mugabe and Zanu-PF the stick. Play fair and not only the SADC but the planet will assist you. If you don’t listen to reason we will leave you to your own devices and that means facing up to the millions of people whose lives you have destroyed.
When Mugabe and Zanu-PF totally censored the media, rigged constituencies to favour rural voters, outlawed international election observers, murdered, intimidated and bribed voters, manipulated the electoral commission, doctored the results and ensured that the millions of exiles could not vote and still lost the election to the MDC it gave us some indication of just how much Zimbabweans hate these people.
Why would we ever want to try and foist them back on our neighbours? If they won’t accept their medicine let the people of Zimbabwe deal with them once and for all.
With all their guns and spite they’re going to find five million desperate people, who really have nothing to lose, far more than they can handle. As this begins to dawn on the army and police they will start to abandon in droves leaving a certain small circle of elite exposed.
Let them beg for mercy from the people they have shown no mercy to.
Trapz,
An “ANC/Zanu PF” coalition is running Zimbabwe (effectively a northern province of South Africa). You mistakenly write about Zim as if it was a sovereign nation and unfortunately whilst you continue on that tack, your analysis wont get us very far.
As you know the SA populace were burdened with Manto for many years. Unfortunately, they are still burdened with Mugabe.
Zanu-PF says it will not meet with Kofi Annan and “The Elders” who are flying in today because they allowed “the west” to impose “sanctions” on Zimbabwe. I did ask you before to spell out those sanctions and why you wanted them lifted. The west will no longer allow African dictators to flee into exile with the loot they have stolen from their people!
According to Barry Ronge, when Mugabe announced that the MDC would get Finance, the main honcho immediately asked for sanction, amnesty for himeself and wife and mistress, and money – in return for giving all the facts of where the looted money from the national trasury has gone. Obviously Mugabe and Zanu-PF can’t allow the police chiefs to do the same – request amnesty for the details of Mugabe’s genocide.
Cosatu was very vocal in support of the MDC and critical of Mbeki before Moshlanthe became president. Now that Moshlante is continuing Mbeki’s policy of supporting Mugabe, Cosatu is deafening by its silence! What a bunch of cowards!
And 300 million rand is a meaningless drop in the ocean anyhow. The gesture of witholding it is merely symbolic, to delude the SA voter that the ANC is really doing something other than prop up Zanu-PF, no matter what.
WOW – your article nails it point by point. It has been my conclusion that the “sooner there is total melt down” by the people, the sooner they can be helped.
To date is has been false “African” solutions to a humanitarian disaster.
However, the people are so terrorised that they prefer to flee to neighbours.
My worst fear, is another xenophobic outburst that I said in May -
“will be a catastrophe that makes May look like a picnic.”
I am holding my breath !
Agreed, but Zimbabweans themselves can and should do a lot more to put pressure on ZANU-PF. By continuing to pay taxes, duties and the like, business (particularly big business) are complicit in allowing ZANU-PF to maintain their grip on the security forces and so terrorise the population into submission.
See: Zimbabwe Stock Exchange: Investing in Mugabe?
http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=2190
Grant
I remember reading that article on investments in the Zimbabwean stock market many months ago.
Use your common sense! If land is being seized and title deeds no longer have any value,and inflation is running rampant, there is nowhere else that the desperate can put their money (which they can’t get out of the country) in the forlorn hope that at least the shares might retain some value.
Let me put it on record that methinks the deal that Mbeki was lauded for is a farce – it will never work. U have 2 sworn enemies (ignore Mutambara’s faction for a moment) being forced to share power for 5 years !! It wont work – remember these mongols need political power to bring in reforms to prop up the Zim economy. Do they agree ?
What Zim needed was an interim government ala SA-style in 1992 -1993 made up of all parties with a mandate to call fresh elections within 16 months. The winner takes all and forges ahead in rebuilding Zim.
We are taking this power-sharing, government of national unity thing too far now !!
Lyndall Beddy on November 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 am
You write: “Cosatu is deafening by its silence!”
What do you expect?? It is part of ZUMA-PF !
And SABC keeps talking about “waring political parties”. SAFM is the same.
This is not about two equals – it is about a loser who refuses to give up power to the winner!
Mike,
It is time to consider the following…
Like it or not, South Africa will be soon be even more involved in the human tragedy that is, worsening by the day, in “Zimbabwe”.
The UN should immediately recognize that Zimbabwe is, de facto, part of South Africa. When good governance is restored, then it can consider the possibility of Zimbabwe’s independence, assuming that its populace are still keen to “go it” alone.
South Africa should IMMEDIATELY undertake the following in conjunction with The UN…
(1) Use its military to distribute food aid and, some health care, to those who are without food and medicines.
(2) Remove Mugabe and his henchmen from power and work in conjunction with Morgan Tsvangirai to feed Zimbawe’s population.
With regard to my previous comment, it should be remembered that Idi Amin was removed from power by the Tanzanian army.
Idi went to live in Saudi Arabia. A possible haven for Mugabe?
FROM THE BBC WEBSITE Oct 24th 2008)
One villager in Mashonaland West pleaded for help before it was “too late”.
“If we don’t get help now, most of us are going to die. Nearly everyone here is starving.”
He showed me three tins of stored maize, but said that with seven children to feed, the supply would only last for a week.
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
“We want the people of Zimbabwe to know we care and we support them,” said Ms Graca Machel, an advocate for women and children.
Mr. Mugabe’s critics had hoped that South Africa’s new leaders, Mr. Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma, president of the African National Congress, would take a harder line than Mr. Mbeki, but there is little evidence yet of a substantive change of policy.
Mr. Motlanthe, in particular, has since faced sharp criticism at home for failing to stand up to Mr. Mugabe. The Star, a South African daily newspaper, said in a Nov. 12 editorial that it seemed Mr. Motlanthe “could no more stand up to the bully Mugabe than either Mbeki or S.A.D.C. members could.”
South Africa itself is increasingly feeling the fallout of Zimbabwe’s decline. The breakdown of Zimbabwe’s water and sanitation systems, which the government there no longer has the cash to maintain, has led to a cholera epidemic that is spilling over the border into South Africa. Zimbabwe’s Health Ministry itself acknowledged last week that cholera had spread to 9 of the country’s 10 provinces. And international health officials say the disease has sickened more than 6,000 people and killed almost 300.
Martin Meredith, author of “The Fate of Africa,” a modern political history of the continent, said the Zimbabwe crisis had laid bare the weakness of Mr. Mugabe’s neighbors.
“All these governments in southern Africa are fairly pusillanimous in dealing with Zimbabwe, except Botswana,” he said. “The real difficulty facing them is that they don’t have any options unless they’re willing to take action against Mugabe.”
Mike,
You have written countless editorials about Mugabe. I don’t think that you understand that power sharing in Zim wont resolve the problem. It is like trying to have great sex with a wife during the midst of divorce proceedings. It is insane and impossible!
Unfortunately, you refuse to consider the following…
(1) Mugabe MUST go. Immediately!
(2) If Mugabe refuses to go, there MUST be a SA force ( preferably with UN
support) to remove him.
(3) Perhaps Botswana will join SA to remove Mugabe?
You people just dont get it, Zimbabwe is not a province of South Africa.
Motlanthe is in no position to impose himself on Mugabe, Mswati or anybody outside the Republic of South Africa.
Poor Motlanthe must now press or insist that Zanu-PF must give Home Affairs portfolio to MDC?
Motlanthe can suggest this, what if Mugabe tells him to go to hell? He just pissed on Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter.
Lyndall you are departing from a premise that SA is holding Mugabe by his nuts, which is a little bit exaggerated. Sometimes your logic is very disappointing.
When Mbeki was president, Mugabe had the Chinese propping him up, now he seems to have very little options and no international friends, with time and patience him and his cronies will have very little manouvre its only a function of time and political shrewdness on the part of the mediator, although Angola remains his biggest ally-the real power and influence rests with the Security Apparatus in that country.
Tsvangarai can have political power today, but no control, ask Victor Yutshcenko of Ukraine, take a political lesson from the invasion of Iraq, the two political simile to the Zimbawean situation.
Lets all get a grip and for once be realistic, lets not rationalise the situation through the prism of your race, ideology or what you think is right, but more by what is possible.
You are all like Chalabi who fed the US establishment a lot of embellished nonsense prior to the invasion of Iraq until they discovered after that he was just a lier and the situation in Iraq was nothing like what he has been paid billions for and the audience of influential people both in Capitol Hill and the Pentagon.
We are all armachair critics intoxicated by passion and very far removed from the real fire.
I think the problem with Zimbabwe is that everyone of the leaders want power only. They dont give a hoot about the people suffering akll they want are the Mercs, free fuel, free housing and all the other things ministers get. Lets be honest all these people want power thats why they are arguing. Traps this talk of unrest is just what politicians are using to scare the international media, was there a month ago did not see an indication of that.
What Zimbabweans need is a kick on the backside and be reminded that its out duty to sort out our future not to spend all our time bothering our neighbours asking them to help us while we sit and complain. Apart from losing the rigged elections what have Zimbos really done for themselves – Nothing!! All we are good at is blame someone for the problems we created on our own. SADC did not force Mugabe on anyone and its not their duty to remove him. Do all you people honestly think that Mugabe has no supporters?
PS – Does the global financial issues mean that there are no donor funds for the unity
To show you what i mean about Zimbabweans using Mugabe to their advantage when it suits them,
KINGDOM Miekles Africa (KMAL) chief executive officer Nigel Chanakira has launched a major counter-attack against group chairman John Moxon whom he wants arrested on charges on externalisation.
Chanakira, who is the target of Moxon’s guns, has deposited an affidavit with the Reserve Bank and reported the chairman to the Criminal Investigations Department’s serious fraud squad for allegedly externalising US$18,6 million and R21,2 million.
That shows you how we complain about Mugabe but we are quick to use his laws (methods)to fight our battles. Thats why Zimbabwe is the way it is.
Canada,
I love your line..”lets not rationalise the situation through the prism of your race, ideology or what you think is right.” Thanks for the tip! I will try and bear it in mind when I pontificate.
Of course, Zimbabwe is effectively a province of South Africa. If it wasn’t, why was Mbeki the only person on this planet who was outwardly “trying” to find a solution to the problem?
The remaining question is whether ZUMA-PF is going to continue propping up ZANU-PF.
My guess is that, as the human catastrophe worsens in the Zim province, the ZUMA-PF regime might start to wonder whether ZANU-PF will actually bring South Africa down with it. When/if this realization comes about, Mugabe will then be removed.
BD
I give up on you and Zimbabwe.
Canada
The AU has sent forces into other countries in Africa, many of them, the DRC, Somalia, Sudan; so why is Zim the ONLY exception? That is what the AU and the UN are SUPPOSED to do. It is SA and SADC which has been stopping both.
One silver lining is the spotlight has shifted to ALL of SADC and what is wrong with THEIR policies.
Cholera in all 9 provinces now AND 46 dead in SA, in Messina. And Zim was a first world economy when Mugabe took it over!
Historians and analysts will debate for generations about Mbeki’s protectionism of black dictators – even to the extent of prejudicing his own family.I presume that you do know that his younger brother was an activist against the despotic dictatorship in Lesotho, and was allegedly killed by their security police? Mbeki refused the requests of his mother and sister-in-law to have this investigated.
Canada on November 24th, 2008 at 4:00 am
Unlike you I have not given up on people living in Zim.
You do not suggest how mass starvation can be avoided but instead you pepper your comments with banalities like.. “Lets all get a grip” “We are all armchair critics”. I assume that you include yourelf??
Mike,
How does anybody negotiate with an insane tyrant like Robert Mugabe?
It is,of course, impossible to negotiate with him.
Inevitably, the insane tyrant remains in power until he is removed by his neighbour. This is the lesson of Idi Amin.
Zuma must make it quite clear. If Mugabe ( Zanu-PF) refuses to relinquish his hold on power (he can take refuge in Saudi Arabia) South Africa will call, at the United Nations, for an international force to remove him. That will put the SA cat amongst the Chinese pigeons.
Lyndall Beddy on November 24th, 2008 at 4:43 pm writes..
“Historians and analysts will debate for generations about Mbeki’s protectionism of black dictators”
For generations?? Do you think that the debate will go on for that long?
My guess is that it will be debated for about half an hour. Really it isn’t very difficult to comprehend… African leaders belong to a club and one of the membership rules is that they all support each other. Not exactly rocket political science!