Zuma tells West it is wrong to hold back aid to Zim

Mr Zuma’s criticism needs to be viewed in the light of the fact that “in the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa.” Zimbabwe has received not an insignificant chunk of this money. I would like to know from Mr Zuma what the ANC has done to make sure that this huge amount of aid given was properly used in Zimbabawe and not merely to enrich a few comrades.

Perhaps Mr Zuma should read “Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa” by Dambisa Moyo (a competent and deep thinking African lady) before spouting forth more criticism of the West. The West has messed up in the current economic crisis – but they need to put their house in order and this also means making sure what kind of help is given and that it gets to those who are really in need.

Wasn't it the ANC that appeased Mugabe for the last decade? Now we have a unstable neighbor with a refugee problem that cannot be stemmed. I wonder why our masters in Beijing have not offered any help?

The world is experiencing severe food shortages, why not ask made Bob and his cronies to utilies those productive farms the confiscated and bring in the aid required.

Can we please get the perspective correct.
Who is wrong. Mugabe for what he has done to his people or West for not supporting him in what he has done.
Mugabe has been in power for 20 years, this in itself is wrong, he has led the country ( not his country) on a path that would make anyone ashamed of what he has done. You may take any measure you like and compare what Zim was 10 years ago, half-way through his rule, and what what Zim is like today. The only improvement in any statistics will be the personal wealth of Mugabe, and those in power with him. In every other aspect or statistic the poor of the country have become poorer. This is the policy or strategy that Mugabe has persued(followed) for the last 10 years, he was not compelled to do so, he did it so that he could command the wealth of the country to the benefit of himself and his government. Now that this wealth has run out, why should the anyone give him more wealth to waste or to spend on his own private luxuries.
Look to Chavez, he has done the some, he has commanded the wealth of the country to keep himself in power, and when the wealth runs out the country is not a better place for what he has done.

It is very difficult for the western governments at present to give any money out to Zimbabwe for several good reasons which i support.Zimbabwe has a very long history of mismanagement of funds and this includes the Zimbabwean people themselves.They r greedy by nature and the UK and the US government does not need to go to Zimbabwe to learn this as criminal court cases involving Zimbabweans who resided in the UK in the last decade tells the whole stories.(You cant trust Zimbabweans) need i say more about the events in Zimbabwe in the last decade .2)It is too early for any money to be given out to the new government.U might have a different view but this is how money works.For example , after one mnth of starting a business you approach a bank and ask them to lend you money.The bank checks your credit score( in this case , the zim one is in the reds) , and it is highly unlikely for the bank to give money to a business which does not have any track record of good sales or any collateral to guarantee the payments.Lets say that money simple came easy from the bank-this time from the west to give to Zimbabwe-what will happen??, anybody can predict this- its the same squander and embezzlement .History have a lot to tell about Zimbabweans as a nation , wherever they are, they find it cool to be corrupt.It ,makes me ashamed to be Zimbabwean
3)The Mood.
The mood right now in Europe is very bleak. Because of the financial crisis and job loses since last November it is very hard to find anyone smiling at you in the street or showing any sign of happiness- times are hard.It is a responsibility of any government to look after its own people first and others will come later and this does not apply to Zimbabwe alone.Most charities and NGOs which phone or stop you to ask for donation to go to the third world( eg- Ox farm ) have actually stopped a larger percentage of their projects of fund raising for the third world because it it highly unfair for the locals who are depressed of losing their jobs.Any government that goes ahead with giving the money to Zimbabwe at this time and hr will be digging its own political grave and in Britain , its highly unlikely that number 10 will listen to this outcry when elections will be held next yr.
The only way forward for Zimbabwe is to keep receiving humanitarian assistance and i certainly agree with their approach.Its effective, its less corrupt , it teaches us that money does not grow on trees.
AFTER INHERITING ONE OF THE BEST ECONOMIES IN THE WORLD IN 1980 AND THEN WHEN ONTO DESTROYING EVERY SECTOR WHICH STOOD AND SUPPORTED THE SMITH GOVERNMENT DURING SANCTIONS, WHAT ARE THE CHANCES THAT ZIMBABWE WILL BE ABLE TO GROW THEIR OWN ECONOMY FROM SCRATCH WHEN IT HAS FAILED A ONCE PROSPEROUS ECONOMY

1. Can an ANC member please tell the public why Zuma does not ask China to help Zim. They provide weapons to intimidate their people.
2. Why does ANC not share some of the money they got from China for their election campaign ?
3. Last resort; the government can deprive our poor to pay Zim civil servants.
The hated West now have to fill the begging bowl after being condemned ?

“This is very unfair to the Zimbabwean people”. Really?
One has to wonder where Mr. Zuma’s sense of fairness to the people of Zimbabwe was during the past ten years while Mugabe stole successive elections with savage brutality that destroyed the economic and social fabric of his country and left many thousands of dead and ruined lives in its wake.
For a decade South Africa and the ANC was quite happy to protect Mugabe from the international censure. Their blatant bias not only protected him, in fact it also encouraged his intransigence and fostered the conception that as long as South Africa was prepared to stand between him and an irate West he had no reason to rein in the brutal excesses of his security forces.
In the light of this, one really has to marvel at the gall and hypocrisy of the statement coming from the leader of a party that is so tainted with Mugabe’s malodorous stench.

gerald cubitt

What aid, and why. Mugabe kicked out NGO's. Now he wants money after sham elections, the continued importation of Chinese weapons, the deliberate political brutalization of his people, ruination of a sucessful ararian economy, the dismanling of the manufacturing sector, the buldozing of markets, the driving off of health care providers, the stealing of lands by his wife, his exultant palace, elimination of water treatment leading to widespread cholera, historical diversion of of international resources to cronies, ad nausium. And where is wealthy South Africa providing aid, along with its superpower China, aid not guns, not to mention wealthy AU countries like Libya, Nigeria, close comrade Angola, and oil rich Sudan.
His information minister claimed publicly that Colera was British biowarfare. What aid, and for what, to prop up the stolen lands and bring back Rwanda/Zim to its heyday of having no problem feeding its people. A few months back it was 7million in need of food aid and it is not going to be different next year, who know where the 60000 figure with colera rests today. Let SA, best economy on the continent give, and not continue to ignore what has happened.

I agree with all the above comments. It is not the West's job to support the government in Zimbabwe. Maybe once South Africa gets its money from the IMF (as Manuel suggested this week), it can donate to Zimbabwe since it has supported the regime for so long.