Zimbabwe is about all of us

The number of signatures is impressive. I was looking for the name of the one person who could do something practical, one Thabo Mbeki. Nope. Not there. More "quiet diplomacy" with the usual results, I suppose?

I'm impressed by the massive solidarity around the issue of Zimbabwe.

However i feel we should have had this massive support for CDE Mugabe when the Labour government in Britain reneged on the Lancaster House Agreement. CDE Mugabe waited the agreed 10+ years before raising the land issue in Zimbabwe. But in the efforts of Zimbabwe to engage the Labour government there was hardly any support. Then Mugabe decide to take the land witout much planning, consequences of which are obvious to everyone and has rendered his government very handicapped.

Wether Mugabe must go or stay, i hoped Morgan would be willing to give the people of Zimbabwe an alternative in the run-off elections.

But we must, all the civil movements in support of the Zimbabwean people, ensure that wether Mugabe goes or not; the sovereignty and the rights of the Zimbabwean people are respected which for me would include the fulfillment of the Lancaster House Agreement by the British. This will have much impact on the socio-economic state of Zimbabwe.

If we fail to support the people of Zimbabwe in this case, i would then seem to me, our solidarity is simple another case of negrophobic traits that see a problem when it is from the black African counterpart. In the end we must also hold the British to its obligations.

The events in Zimbabwe are scandalous - to say the least. Nobody will have any effect on Mugabe at all as he is past saving. However, we as South Africans must cocentrate our efforts in finding ways to pressurise Thabo Mbeki to take firm action against Mugabe or face equal responsibility in criminal charges resulting from the atrocities currently taking place under Thabo Mbeki's nose and possibly with his knowledge and consent. GOD bless Zimbabwe!

Where is South African leadership? Quiet diplomacy? Very quiet indeed, it seems. You might almost say none existent.
The Zimbabwean Army is presetnly a collection of goons, lead by a deluded nut case. Had someone stood up to Hitler earlier, he would have been neutered and not gone on to cause so much misery.

As an Australian I have a high regard for South Africa and South Africans but my respect for your government has shrunken to absolute zero! How can your president sit on his hands and allow that once respectable, but now reprehensible shocker, Mugabe, to act in ways that would make even Hitler proud? What is your president scared of? A slap on the wrist form the likes of Mugabe and his cronies?

When things fell apart in the Solomon Islands and in East Timor, our northern neighbours (albeit belatedly in the case of Timor), the Australian government stepped in to help clear up the mess. Australia's pressure against the coup in Fiji has been relentless. But the South African government's response to Mugabe??? Just a "There, there, old great man, tsk, tsk!!!"

The general Australian point of view is one of horror and sorrow for the people of Zimbabwe...that such things could happen in what is supposed to be a democracy is just sheer lunacy. It also adds fire to the stupid right wing extremists who use situations such as what is happening in Zimbabwe to further the insulting myth that black Africans cannot organise and run corruption-free governments.

Everyone, and I mean everyone I have meet from South Africa...tourists and immigrants alike, black and white alike...have been exceptionally good and fair minded people. I think this has happened because of the extraordinary trouble that South Africa has navigated itself through. I hold the likes of Nelson Mandela in the same regard as I hold the greats like Martin Luther King Jr. and John F Kennedy but Mr. Mbeki...my respect for you is falling away at a great rate of knots and I suspect that many of my Aussie compatriots feel the same way. For heaven's sake, and for the sake of the innocents in Zimbabwe...DO SOMETHING!!!

What is Thabo Mbeki so scared of? Why is he so quite? Why has Mandela and Desmond Tutu not said or done anything about the crisis in Zimbabwe, The future for Zimbabwe and South Africa looks rather scary!

With reference to Tom Barton's comment, I would like to just say that as a South African, I can guarantee you that the issues of black versus white have long been overshadowed by the pure greed and power of which all African leaders are infected with and so as we would seem it humane and ideal that people like Thabo Mbeki should be doing something, I am afraid your naivity of what Africans are like comes through your comment, so please do not ask what is South Africa doing because I can tell you now all South Africans are just as concerned, rather just refer to the leaders in question, leaders past and present, Nelson Mandela for example he may be 90 soon but he holds alot of power and surely he could do or say something or Desmond Tutu floating around the globe like a fairy, what is he doing? and ofcourse Thabo Mbeki who is now showing his true colours to the world, all the scary qualities South Africans have had to endure and have always been aware of, Please come and live in Africa for a few years and then rewrite your comment, I only hope that all the brave people of Zimbabwe will fight to get there country back!

Chantal Butler... I'm trying to read between the lines of what you wrote in reply to my earlier comment because it seems you are implying that corruption, greed and lust for power occurs in governments across the entire African continent, regardless of the colour of the leadership. If that is so then I am truly saddened for all of you.

I though a lot about your reply to me and it gave me pause for thought. Yes...why doesn't Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu say something about the Zimbabwe issue...why aren't they showing their dismay at the disgusting situation brewing there? Why aren't they lamenting the fact that the MDC leader has to hide in the Dutch Embassy in his own country just for being a leader of an opposition political party?

Look...maybe I am naive but then I come from a country where the rule of law is sacrosanct and the general population would never tolerate anything like Mugabe's and Zanu-PF's antics. Our elections barely raise more than an eyebrow in temper and civil strife would be unthinkable. If that's down to the naivety of Australians (who are a very multi-cultural bunch...) then thank God I live here...where justice and truth are still very highly valued qualities.

Anyway...my harsh judgements are reserved for the government of SA, not it's long-suffering people, for whom ,as I wrote earlier, I have a high regard. God save Zimbabwe and its people.

Lets not get excited here as most people have no clue of what is going on within Africa. If South Africa thinks that they are safe, be warned and take heed. The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 is something worth reading to understand what is going on.

President Robert Mugabe and the Patriotic Front government are the targets of ZDERA. In the name of democracy, the bill would allow the U.S. Congress to spend $6 million to influence the upcoming national election, in the name of "voter education," and would put sanctions on the country's leaders. While members of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, would be free to travel around the world, the bill would restrict travel by the leaders of the Zimbabwe government and freeze their bank accounts.

The MDC doesn't hide the fact that it is funded by Britain's Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the political equivalent of Washington's National Endowment for Democracy that has poured millions of U.S. taxpayers' dollars into elections abroad, many in Eastern Europe, to get the results desired by U.S. strategists.

The sanctions proposed in ZDERA are not the only outside pressure on Zimbabwe. A delegation from the European Union, representing the countries that carved Africa up for colonial plunder in the 19th century, arrived in Harare Nov. 22 threatening to suspend beef and sugar trade deals vital to Zimbabwe's economy. But Minister of Foreign Affairs Stan Mudenge told the Herald newspaper that the government was ready for them and wanted to expose the EU's interference in the internal politics of Zimbabwe by funding opposition parties.

There is strong support for the Patriotic Front government in the country's rural areas, where most of the people live. The opposition MDC is based largely in the cities.

Pressure on Zimbabwe from imperialist lending institutions like the IMF and the World Bank became heavy after Mugabe heeded the call of Congolese President Laurent Kabila to defend that country against invading troops from Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, who were funded by the same banks that are squeezing Zimbabwe. Kabila was eventually assassinated. His successor, Joseph Kabila, was forced to come to Washington and make economic concessions to U.S. imperialism in order to end the war. The uneasy truce that now exists in the Congo is proof of the imperialists' responsibility for the earlier war and invasion.

The capitalists of the U.S. and Europe who make tremendous profits from their control over the rich resources and underpaid labor of Africa act shocked and hurt when accused of perpetuating the economic super-exploitation first established under colonialism. But there really is no other word for it.

IMF reforms deepened poverty

The mechanisms in the modern era are more nuanced, of course. But they are every bit as oppressive. Today, 45 percent of Zimbabweans are not able to meet "basic nutritional needs," according to a government poverty assessment survey. Three-quarters of the people live in poverty, up from 40 percent just a decade ago. At that time Western-backed economic reforms, the so-called "structural adjustment programs," forced underdeveloped countries everywhere to sell off state properties and end food and other subsidies. Mugabe, like other Third World leaders, went along with these programs reluctantly, knowing that his government would be up against a full-court press if it refused.



Mugabe is visibly a victim of a well rehearsed and coordinated conspiratorial scheme, for his unpleasant role of rubbing salt in the eyes of his former colonial master by executing the land redistribution programme. The massive financial isolation through American, British and EU legislation such as the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery (ZDER) act of 2001 is the actual cause of hyperinflation and the shortages in Zimbabwe and not Mugabe’s poor management as is currently being bugled. Hence it is quite evident that the genesis of the relentless crusade by London and some few other countries against the former British colony is fundamentally ingrained in the controversial land Reform Policy also known as fast track programme, which was adopted by the government of Zimbabwe. The Human Rights issue in Zimbabwe is being politicized by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party with blessings from London and other quarters.

It would be worthwhile for African leaders to step in to arrange for another Kenyan-type political accommodation in Zimbabwe . There was no clear winner following the presidential elections, despite pushy claims by the British-sponsored MDC opposition that its leader won the elections.



To remove President Mugabe and his government from power will not salvage the precarious situation, because the land issue will yet persist. The bleak scenario would be when those lands seized from the whites are returned to them by any western-imposed administration in the country. Zimbabweans including the veterans would rearm themselves and civil war might ensue leading to more unavoidable anguish with wide-ranging regional ramifications.

Thuthukani Mkhize, you have written an eloquent and comprehensive description of what you see as a Western conspiracy against Zimbabwe. I cannot comment on the veracity of what you have written because I am not aware of the facts and so you have given me some homework to do as I wish to research this topic further. I am not averse to seeing the other point of view and learning new things, especially with controversial subjects such as what is happening in Zimbabwe.
Thuthukani, if one were to consider everything you have written as being true, do you see Mr.Mbeki's supposed inaction regarding this issue as not wanting to compound the conspiracy further and also not wanting to inflame the Western powers by speaking out against them?
Again, if what you say is true then there are more evil things at work here than one can see on the surface, however, even a rabid Zanu-PF supporter would have to agree that political violence, summary arrests, etc are untenable in a modern democracy and in Western eyes paint Mr. Mugabe in a terrible light. this, added to the fact that Mr. Mugabe has made some very inflammatory statements in this last week or so make him look every bit the dictator, don't you think? Anyway, one way or another peace must come quickly to Zimbabwe and it is a crying shame that the UN is trumpeting loudly and yet doing nothing materially.

For all those who say President Mbeki should openly criticize President Mugabe, may I ask what good will that do? Other people who have shouted at Mugabe like the Americans and British and some African countries, what good has come from that except for Mugabe to be more defiant? President Mbeki has been consistent in saying the solution to the problem in Zimbabwe will and should come from Zimbabweans by coming around the table. Shouting all over the show and going there with guns will not solve anything, at least we have good examples of Iraq and Afghanistan. And for the record, for President Mbeki to agree to mediate in Zimbabwe means that he acknowledges that there's a problem in that country.

In all of this most people seem to have forgotten why Zimbabwe is like that, the British government reneged on it's agreement with Zimbabwe and they seem to have forgotten that they are part of the reason Zimbabwe is in crisis.

Thuthukani Mkhize has just put the whole thing into perspective. After all Mugabe's minions are only killing, maiming, brutalising, burning, torturing and raping BLACK people and we all know that in Africa these activities are tolerated so long as the perpetrators are themselves BLACK and can provide a well reasoned justification for their "corrective measures". Heaven forbid any WHITE person behave in the same manner for by God Mr Mbeki and his fellow apologists would drag the matter in all it's ignomy into the UN Security Council with great fanfare and angst.

And all the time human being are starving and dying. Shame on the black African and the leaders they have chosen!!!

I was really disappointed when Tsvangarai refrained from the election. For a while there Zimbabweans could atleast say that they were better than us in one respect. Atleast Zimbabwe had an opposition party that could stand, statistically, against their ruling party. This is clearly much more than we can say for our democracy. Mugabe and the MDC are practical examples of what happens when, post revolution, one party is placed on a pedastil and party leaders' egos are over inflated by religious like worship and placed 'indefinately' in positions of power. A similar political landscape that seems to be occuring in this country.
It is true, It is easy to distract ourselves from our own issues and discuss Zimbabwe as if it is far from us. Zimbabwe is much closer to us than we think.