The Telegraph
Stephen
Bevan in Pretoria, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:42am BST
19/08/2007
The economy of Zimbabwe is facing total collapse
within four months,
leaving the country facing a slide into Congo-style
anarchy, The Sunday
Telegraph has been told.
Western officials
fear the business, farming and financial sectors may
be crippled by
Christmas, triggering a collapse of government control that
could leave the
country prey to warlords and ignite long-suppressed tribal
tensions.
The stark warning of the scale of the crisis comes
despite the welcome
given to Mr Mugabe by fellow African leaders at a summit
in neighbouring
Zambia last week, where critics had hoped he might be
pressurised into
changing his policies.
It also follows reports
that Britain's military is reviewing
contingency plans to evacuate more than
20,000 Britons, were any widespread
state of emergency to
occur.
Speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the
subject, one
Western official said: "It is hard to be definitive, but
probably within
months, by the end of the year, we will see the formal
economy cease to
work."
He added: "One of the great dangers in
all this, if Mugabe hangs on
for much longer, is that the country will slip
from authoritarianism to
anarchy, the government will lose control of the
provinces, it will lose
control of the towns and you will have a situation
where the central
authority's writ no longer holds."
Asked
which other African nation Zimbabwe might end up resembling
under a
worst-case scenario, the official cited as an example the Democratic
Republic of Congo (the former Zaire), beset for years by famine, civil war
and inter-ethnic conflict.
There are also fears that a
breakdown in law and order could lead to
an outbreak of ethnic conflict
between Zimbabwe's two main tribes, Mugabe's
own Shona and the Ndebele in
the southwest.
Some political groups are already talking about
regime change as an
opportunity to press for independence, while more
extreme elements have
voiced agendas that could amount to "ethnic
cleansing".
The official added that, because of Mr Mugabe's slum
clearance
programme, -Zimbabwe's informal subsistence economy, made up
largely of
street traders, hawkers and black marketeers, had lost much its
ability to
absorb shocks from the government's three-month price freeze,
which has
emptied shop shelves of stocks.
Poverty was now
endemic, he said, with 80 per cent of people living
"below any definition of
the poverty line."
The fear among Western officials is that as
Zimbabwe sinks deeper into
crisis, the task of rebuilding, if or when Mugabe
does go, is being made
ever more difficult.
The infrastructure
is breaking down after years of no investment, with
both Bulawayo and parts
of the capital, Harare, virtually without water
supplies.
The
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority generates barely a fifth of
the
country's needs and neighbouring countries' generating companies are now
refusing to sell to Zimbabwe except for cash.
John Robertson, a
Harare-based independent economist, said the
prediction that the formal
economy would cease to function within four
months might even be
optimistic.
"We could be a matter of a month or two away from that
kind of
collapse, and some would tell you that it's happened already," he
said.
"They can't pay the wages that would be necessary for people to carry
on
working, because the price at which they're allowed to sell goods is way
below the production costs."
The most immediate effect of the
worsening economic situation is
escalating migration.
The
Western official said that four million Zimbabweans, or around one
third of
the population, had already left the country, with "another two
million
packing their cases to leave", mostly to South Africa. The "flight
rather
than fight" strategy, however, suggests a mass uprising against Mr
Mugabe is
unlikely.
While Western governments have publicly backed attempts
by South
Africa's president Thabo Mbeki to mediate between the Zanu PF
government and
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in a bid to
ease the political
crisis, there was little sign of a breakthrough at last
week's 14-nation
Southern African Development Community summit in
Zambia.
Privately, Western officials now say that "the time for
talking is
past", and that reconciliation between government and opposition
is
unlikely.
Zimbabwe's neighbours now had to decide whether
they were willing to
tell Mr Mugabe that his policies were not acceptable,
said the official.
"We're not talking about tanks across Beit
Bridge (the border post
with South Africa) but they do have to decide
whether there is a stick in
this equation and what that stick should be," he
said.
Reuters
Sun 19
Aug 2007, 14:42 GMT
By Michael Georgy and Shapi Shacinda
LUSAKA
(Reuters) - Zambian Finance Minister Ng'andu Magande thinks there may
be
only one way to influence defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe --
enlist the help of African liberation giants like Nelson
Mandela.
"Perhaps with a bit of pressure from President Mugabe's good
friends like
Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia's founding father) or old people like
Mandela
perhaps, you can see that things can be done differently without
anybody
losing out," he told Reuters.
Magande's comments were
tacit recognition that Southern African Development
Community (SADC) leaders
failed during their meeting last week to pressure
Zimbabwe's long-time
leader into enacting political and economic reforms.
Critics say that
inaction has tainted regional leaders, raising questions
about their
commitment to democracy and easing the suffering of millions of
Zimbabweans
struggling to survive the world's worst economic crisis outside
a war
zone.
"SADC has a credibility problem because of its failure to adhere to
democratic rules," said Chileshe Mulenga, head of the Institute for Economic
and Social Reseach, a Lusaka think-tank.
"It is a club of presidents
who support each other regardless of the
suffering of the people because
they all behave like monarchs. There are no
real principles which guide SADC
and this is why they are showing solidarity
for Mugabe because of a lack of
free and fair elections."
The group, experts say, is also awed into
silence by Mugabe's place in
history.
To the western world, Mugabe is
a ruthless dictator whose people are victims
of his mismanagement of what
had been southern Africa's breadbasket.
But southern African leaders look
up to him as a respected liberation hero
who still takes on the United
States and former coloniser Britain, even
though he is accused of bringing
Zimbabwe to its knees in the process.
His past is one reason Mugabe
received the loudest applause when he stood up
at the SADC summit, and it
insulates him from criticism by leaders who grew
up regarding him as a
legend.
"Mugabe is far more experienced than this younger generation of
leaders and
he knows exactly what he is doing," Zambian Information Minister
Mike
Mlongoti told Reuters.
"What can they do? They can't pressure
Zimbabwe because it is a sovereign
state. Sanctions have not achieved
anything and only hurt Zimbabweans,"
Mlongoti added.
"HE IS
ISOLATED"
As the new chair of SADC, Zambia will be under more
international pressure
to face up to Mugabe.
President Levy Mwanawasa
was the first African leader to speak out against
Mugabe, saying Zimbabwe
was a "sinking Titanic" earlier this year.
But he has since toned down
his position. Western diplomats say he is deeply
worried about the turmoil
in Zimbabwe and is seeking the help of SADC
countries to resolve the
issue.
But it didn't take Mwanawasa long to realise how difficult that
may be.
"He raised the subject of Zimbabwe at the summit and got no
support at all.
He is isolated," said a Western diplomat. "All of this
proves that SADC
can't work."
Asked if SADC had confronted Mugabe on
human rights, Mwanawasa suggested
it's a taboo subject, as a nearby
Zimbabwean official looked on at a news
conference: "We have discussed them
and we are satisfied with the answers
which were given."
Mugabe has
succeeded in mixing emotionally charged political issues with
economics,
making it more difficult for Southern African leaders to
criticise his
policies.
His argument that Western sanctions are in retaliation for his
controversial
policy of seizing of white-owned farms for redistribution to
landless blacks
stirs emotions in a region scarred by
colonialism.
Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa spent two hours
at the summit
explaining how all of the country's problems -- the world's
highest
inflation and severe food and fuel shortages -- were linked to land
stolen
by Britain since the late 1800s.
Few SADC leaders could argue
with him. To do so would be a betrayal of the
collective suffering of the
region.
MBEKI
Magande is seen as one of the region's best economic
managers. But he, like
others, argues that a hands-on approach by SADC in
Zimbabwe would only
backfire. It's up to Mugabe and opposition groups to
resolve their
differences, he says.
That is unlikely to happen
anytime soon.
Analysts say the more Mugabe is pressured, especially in
public, the more he
digs in. Even South Africa, credited with breaking
decades of apartheid and
introducing a successful democracy, seems to have
little sway over Mugabe.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has
been mediating between Mugabe
and the opposition, delivered a report on his
efforts to the summit, which
ended on Friday. Heads of state described it as
positive and encouraged both
sides to accelerate talks, language used
several times before.
"The only one that can influence Mugabe is Mbeki,"
said the Western
diplomat. "But he can't do a thing."
Mugabe, who is
known as a great speaker, is likely to keep getting loud
applauses at
summits.
"I have heard him speak. It doesn't take him long to get people
eating out
of his hands," said another Western diplomat.
Chris
McGreal
Sunday August 19, 2007
The Observer
The shelves are
bare except for what Zimbabwe's limping factories produce -
baked beans at
the cost of a month's salary, crisps rationed to two packets
per shopper and
all the cleaning fluid you want.
The petrol pumps dried up a month ago. Water
and electricity are off more
often than they are on. The national currency
has an expiry date of July
2007 stamped on it but it's worth hardly anything
anyway, so nobody seems to
care.
Some Zimbabweans find a perverse
comfort in all this because they believe,
as the American ambassador put it,
that Robert Mugabe is committing regime
change on himself with his mad
economics. It cannot get any worse, they say,
but it can.
As bad as
Zimbabwe gets, it still seems that there is a long way to fall.
Mobutu Sese
Seko ran Zaire into the ground for more than two decades and was
only
removed by an invasion. Successive military governments plundered
Nigeria,
wrecking its economy and infrastructure and still retained power.
Zimbabwe
may be far from the tipping point.
That said, everyone except Mugabe and
his inner circle seems to agree that
with inflation accelerating so fast no
one really knows what it is, and with
much of the economy decamped to the
black market and a system of bartering,
total economic meltdown cannot be
far off.
The US ambassador's prediction sent a shudder through the upper
echelons of
Zanu-PF (the ruling party) and prompted Mugabe to order the
police and army
into the shops to enforce the cutting of the prices of
everything by at
least half. While it demonstrated Mugabe's loose grasp of
the causes of
inflation, the efficiency with which reductions were imposed
also showed
that in some way he remains very much in
control.
Mugabe's neighbours are divided and even those bearing the brunt
of his
chaos appear paralysed. He arrived at the summit of southern African
Presidents to thunderous applause. To many, he remains a liberation hero and
it offends their African nationalism to see him pushed around by the
Americans and British.
The Angolans are behind him. The Zambians and
South Africans are more
critical, but Mugabe appears scornful of Thabo
Mbeki's efforts to mediate a
settlement between Zanu-PF and the opposition.
Zanu-PF delegates simply
didn't turn up for the first round of talks. When
they did, there was little
evidence they viewed them as anything more than a
sop to Mbeki.
Mbeki says he wants to reach agreement on terms for a free
presidential
election next year. Why would Mugabe agree to that? He's spent
seven years
rigging elections precisely because he knows he's going to lose
and has no
intention of surrendering power - at least not to anyone outside
Zanu-PF. He
can go into another election pretty much on his own terms and
may not need
to rig it so much after all. The opposition is weak and divided
and has lost
the confidence of the people.
About one-third of the
population is estimated to have walked out of the
country, most to South
Africa. That relieves pressure on the regime by
removing some of those most
likely to rebel, along with potential opposition
voters. It also provides a
steady stream of hard currency back to Zimbabwe.
Mugabe appears to retain
the loyalty of most of the security chiefs, partly
because they are old
comrades in arms, but also for more immediate
interests. The central bank is
little more than a cash dispenser for the
elite who buy dollars at the
official rate and sell them at 800 times more
on the black
market.
Some of Mugabe's inner circle also have good reason to fear what
will come
next. The military and police chiefs have enough blood on their
hands to
face trial under another administration, although the opposition
has offered
an amnesty and power sharing in an effort to encourage Zanu-PF
to dump
Mugabe.
Yet there are signs of discontent among those around
Mugabe. Questions
continue to swirl around the death of the head of the
presidential security
guard, Brigadier General Armstrong Gunda, who was
supposedly killed when his
car was hit by a train. Six days before Gunda was
killed, about 15 members
of his force were arrested and accused of plotting
a coup, although not the
general. Ordinary Zimbabweans are still trying to
work out if there really
was a coup plot or whether Mugabe was simply
demonstrating once again that
he still sets the agenda.
But the
mystery over Gunda hints at the direction any solution may have to
come
from. The region's leaders can't provide the solution, neither can
Britain.
Change will have to come from within and if the opposition can't do
it,
perhaps Zanu-PF's survival instincts will kick in and it will ditch its
greatest liability. But don't count on it happening soon.
Chris
McGreal has been reporting from Africa since 1990
The Australian
From
correspondents in Lusaka, Zimbabwe | August 19, 2007
THE United Nations'
refugee agency has made a contingency plan in
anticipation of thousands of
Zimbabwean refugees flee their country's
worsening political and economic
situation.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chief, Antonio
Guterres, said the
contingency plan on Zimbabwe had been developed in
readiness for any influx
of refugees to neighbouring countries.
He
said over three million Zimbabwean have so far left their country even
though only a limited number have applied for asylum in neighbouring
countries.
"Many Zimbabweans who are leaving that country are in need
of humanitarian
assistance even though they have not asked for asylum," said
Mr Guterres,
who has been in Zambia to assess the refugee
situation.
"It is our wish that the problems in Zimbabwe will be solved.
We have no
mandate to intervene but we are discussing with the humanitarian
community
to see how we can help," Mr Guterres said.
Some 1000
Zimbabwean refugees have entered Zambia, according to official
immigration
figures.
UPI
Aug. 19 (UPI) -- By David
Masango Lusaka - Talks between the Zimbabwean
government and opposition
parties, are progressing well says the facilitator
of the dialogue, South
African President Thabo Mbeki. "[We reported that]
this is work in progress.
Delegates are meeting on the basis of an agenda
they agreed on themselves.
"The summit called on them to speed up the
[negotiation] process so that
elections in March should be held in an
environment of peace and stability,"
he said, speaking to the media after
the conclusion of the Southern African
Development Community's Summit. The
two parties involved in the talks are
the ruling Zanu-PF and opposition
Movement For Democratic Change (MDC). The
27th SADC Summit in Lusaka
received a report from President Mbeki and
another from Executive Secretary
of the SADC Secretariat, Tomaz Salomao. Dr
Salomao had been compiling a
report for some months on Zimbabwe's ailing
economy, and presented this
document, including a proposed turnaround plan,
to the Summit. President
Mbeki said all SADC leaders were concerned that by
election time, expected
to be in March next year, all matters should have
been removed, adding that
the negotiating parties themselves were saying
that. Asked about the civil
bodies' concerns regarding the talks, Mr Mbeki
explained that he had met
them on Tuesday, and they were satisfied with the
way the talks were going.
"The matters that [the civil society] raised that
they felt should be
discussed were already on the agenda were already on the
agenda - so they
agreed that we should proceed the way we are doing," said
President Mbeki.
In March this year, at the close of their two-day
extraordinary summit in
Dar-Es-Salaam, SADC leaders mandated President Mbeki
to spearhead the
promotion of dialogue among political parties and interest
groups in
Zimbabwe. Host President Jakaya Kikwete at the time said all the
leaders
were unhappy with the crisis in Zimbabwe, which was described as
unhealthy
for democratic dispensation. The SADC leaders, President Kikwete
added, also
strongly appealed to the political parties in Zimbabwe to
co-operate and
give the peace initiative a chance to work. The Tanzanian
president who is
also chairman of the sub Troika for defence, security and
peace, said the
leaders also considered and discussed the diplomatic and
economic situation
in Zimbabwe. To this effect, the leaders called on the
international
community to help Zimbabwe and the SADC region at large to
return to normal.
On the issue of the economy in that country, the leaders
at the Tanzanian
Summit felt that the situation should not be left to
deteriorate beyond the
current levels. To this end, the SADC Dr Salomao was
tasked to analyse the
situation and advise on a positive way forward. The
Zambian Summit in this
regard, recommended that an economic recovery plan be
drafted by SADC
finance ministers and the Zimbabwean government. South
Africa has long
expressed a stance of collective action towards resolving
the economic,
political and social crisis of its northern neighbour. Amongst
others the
recent summit also noted the continued strengthening of regional
integration
and a number of successful elections held in the region,
including in
Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Ivory Coast.
They also
discussed strategies for infrastructure development for regional
integration; achieving a Free Trade Area by 2008; regional food security;
women representation in decision-making positions; and they also committed
to fight HIV and AIDS, amongst others. In that regard President Mbeki
explained that the SADC region would be able to have a free trade area by
the end of next year as planned. He said SADC states had just one year left
to remove tariffs on goods. - BuaNews
UPI
Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Lusaka -
Southern African heads of state have mandated
their countries' finance
ministers to draft an economic recovery plan for
Zimbabwe, in tandem with
that country's government. At the conclusion of the
Southern African
Development Community's (SADC) 27 Summit, the leaders
issued a communiqué
which amongst others stated: "(The) Summit took note of
the Report of the
Executive Secretary on the economic situation in Zimbabwe
and mandated the
SADC Ministers responsible for Finance to use the Report of
the Executive
Secretary in consultations with the Government of Zimbabwe and
draw up an
economic plan to support Zimbabwe." Executive Secretary of the
SADC
Secretariat, Tomaz Salomao had been compiling a report for some months
on
Zimbabwe's ailing economy, and presented this document, including a
proposed
turnaround plan, to the Summit. SADC is composed of 14 countries
namely,
Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho,
Malawi,
Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Tanzania, Swaziland,
South
Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The 27th SADC Heads of State and
Government
opened in Lusaka earlier this week, after a series of meetings by
the
Council of Ministers and Committees of senior officials from the SADC
countries. The Summit was briefed that the negotiations between Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and both factions of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were progressing smoothly. Morgan
Tsvangirai, leads the MDC's anti-Senate faction while Arthur Mutambara,
leads the MDC's pro-Senate faction The leaders at the summit commended South
African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mandated to facilitate the talks
between the ruling party and opposition in his country's northern neighbour.
In addition, the Summit welcomed the progress made in this regard and
"encouraged the parties to expedite the process of negotiations and conclude
work as soon as possible so that the next elections are held in an
atmosphere of peace allowing the people of Zimbabwe to elect the leaders of
their choice in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity." President Mbeki
received further accolades from the regional body, by being elected as its
deputy chair. The new chair of the SADC is Zambian President Levi Mwanawasa.
The summit also elected Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, and King
Mswati III of the Kingdom of Swaziland as Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson
of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation respectively. -
BuaNews
News24
19/08/2007 13:25 -
(SA)
Finweek's Harare correspondent Chris Muronze
Harare-
President Robert Mugabe's government might back off from its price
monitoring and control policy which has caused severe shortages of basic
goods in a desperate bid to quell consumer mutiny and
disgruntlement.
The Sunday Mail, a government mouthpiece, generally
believed to mirror
government policy and feeling, reported that there was a
need to come up
with realistic prices to end food shortages in the troubled
southern African
country.
The paper quoted consumers saying there was
a need for the government to
come up with realistic prices that will also
cushion manufacturers and
consumers that will guarantee supplies in the long
run.
This, analysts say, shows there could be a shift in the Mugabe
government's
position on its price control policy and could reverse the
policy.
Consumers also criticised the government for wasting time and
resources
investigating cases of overcharging instead of making sure
supplies were
constant.
A consumer said: "There should be a
distinction between profit-making and
profiteering. As consumers, we accept
that businesses must make profits, but
we are against
profiteering.
"We would want the government to protect us, but some of
the prices which
have been set are not viable and this explains why the
goods are not
available."
Another consumer said: "I want to cite the
example of electricity tariffs.
Half the time we have no electricity supply
in my area and we have to resort
to buying firewood at $75 000 per bunch to
prepare one meal.
"If you prepare 20 meals using firewood, you would have
used nearly $1,5m
and yet most people are still paying monthly bills of $200
000 for
electricity.
"This explains why Zesa (Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority) is failing
to service its debts because if one can fork
out $1,5m for firewood every
month, they can surely pay $1m to ensure that
they have electricity
throughout the month."
This comes after Mugabe
ordered businesses to slash prices of basic goods by
50% in June threatening
defiant ones with arrests. He also said his
government would not hesitate to
take over defiant companies.
The aged leader, 84, and in power since
independence from Britain 26 years
ago, accused industry of profiteering and
causing runaway inflation.
Zimbabwe has the highest inflation in the
world, believed to be above 4 500%
in April.
The government's
crackdown on retailers and manufacturers has seen goods
disappearing off the
shelves and are now available on the black market.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
19 August
2007
The faction of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change headed
by MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai staged rallies
today in Harare, the
capital, building to the official launch September 9 of
its presidential and
general election campaigns.
National elections
are slated for March 2008 after local council elections
in
January.
Tsvangirai faction spokesman Nelson Chamisa said hundreds of
supporters
turned out for the rally in Harare. He said the opposition
faction will
expand urban and rural outreach to sensitize members and the
public to the
importance of the elections.
Chamisa expanded on the
strategy in an interview with VOA reporter Chinedu
Offor.
The
Tsvangirai faction called a meeting Sunday with Zimbabweans emigrés in
South
Africa to discuss their demand to be able to cast votes in next year's
ballots. The party says eligible Zimbabwean citizens should pressure Harare
for the right to vote.
Tsvangirai was not at the meeting but was to
address a Johannesburg rally
Monday.
Elsewhere, party officials said
about 29 members of the faction remained
behind bars at the Nehanda police
station in the Mkoba suburb of Gweru, the
Midlands capital.
The
activists were arrested on Saturday as they met to form a burial
society.
Police said they were being held under the Public Order and
Security Act,
which forbids the holding of public meetings without
authorization.
But Mkoba parliamentarian Amos Chibaya told reporter
Jonga Kandemiiri of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe said no formal charges had
been pressed.
:: Innocent Madawo - The Southern
African
Sunday, 19 August 2007
What transpired at the SADC
heads of state summit in Lusaka last week
has left me wondering whether
south African leaders know exactly what is
going on in Zimbabwe or they are
just so blinded with their love (or is it
fear) of President Robert Mugabe
that they just don't care.
How on earth could Zambian president,
Levy Mwanawasa say problems in
Zimbabwe are being
"exaggerated"?
How can anyone exaggerate hunger affecting 3-4
million people; 80%
unemployment; more than 5,000% inflation; 3-4 million
Zimbabweans exiled;
hundreds of opposition and civic activists beaten up,
tortured, jailed and
killed? How possible is it to embellish that when most
of these statistics
are churned out by none other than the government or its
agencies?
Mwanawasa should know better. Not long ago his own
country was in a
situation not even as bad as what is prevailing in
Zimbabwe. But he is
president now because long-time president (for 27
years), Kenneth Kaunda,
allowed free and fair elections that toppled him in
a labour and
civic-driven vote not unlike the one being suppressed in
Zimbabwe.
Why then, Mwanawasa do you want to help suppress
Zimbabweans from
exercising what you benefited from? We thought you were
your own man when
you stood out and condemned Zimbabwe as "a sinking
titanic". How powerful is
Mugabe's hold on you?
As for South
African president, Thabo Mbeki, I wonder whether we are
really
underestimating the thinking behind the so-called "quiet diplomacy".
Surely
a country "burdened" by no less than three million Zimbabweans
crossing over
in thousands everyday, should actively and urgently seek a
lasting solution
to the troubled neighbour's problems.
Unless, of course, Zimbabwe's
troubles and loss of its people is a
massive economic gain to South Africa.
One just has to look at how many
Zimbabwean professionals are running South
African hospitals, schools,
newsrooms, companies and more. Could it be that
Mr. Mbeki has realized that
Zimbabwean exiles are worth more to
him?
As for the rest of SADC leaders, well, I kind of sense
jealousy. After
all Zimbabwe is really an economic giant that is only
slumbering. Should it
be woken up to play, it will rule the commercial
playground again in no
time.
This is the only way I can
rationalize what is going on in SADC about
the Zimbabwe issue. Forget all
this "solidarity with a brother state"
nonsense. Forget the phony
condemnation of Britain and the US and others. It
is all about insecure
regimes happy to have national and international
attention on someone else
not themselves.
Everybody knows what the real issue is in Zimbabwe.
It is about a
politically and economically suppressed nation. A nation
needing relief from
an 83-year-old khulu whose recycled ideas and personnel
are just too spent
to recharge a modern economy needing modern leadership
and ideas.
It is not a personal issue against Mugabe or anybody. It
is an urgent
national and regional matter that needs to be addressed
now.
Mandela, Kaunda, Nyerere, Nujoma and even Mugabe's own idol,
the late
Kamuzu Banda let their countries free to seek new leaders. This is
all we
are asking for please, President Mugabe.
Peoples Daily
14:48, August 19,
2007
The second summit between the European Union (EU)
and Africa,
which has been long delayed over the Zimbabwe factor, will take
place in the
Portuguese capital of Lisbon in December, Portuguese Foreign
Minister Luis
Amado said Saturday.
Amado, whose country
currently holds the rotating EU presidency,
told the press that one of the
EU's priorities for the second half of 2007
is the holding of the Dec. 8-9
EU-Africa summit.
EU member states and African countries held
their first summit
in the Egyptian capital of Cairo in 2000, with the aim to
promote relations
between the two continents.
The second
EU-Africa gathering was originally slated to take
place in 2003, but was
postponed indefinitely after the imposition of
sanctions on Zimbabwe by the
EU and due to Britain's objection to the
presence of Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe in the event.
When asked whether Mugabe would
be invited for the meeting this
time, Amado said the preparatory work for
the gathering is still underway
and the issue of Mugabe's attendance will be
resolved in due time through
diplomatic channels.
Source:
Xinhua
National Post, Canada
Among those
few of us who pay attention to events in sub-Saharan Africa, it
has become a
great cliché to say that the region needs more "made-in-Africa"
solutions.
The white man -- with his colonial legacy and predatory,
mercantilist
mindset -- is simply not equipped to deal with African
challenges, the
theory goes.
So what happens when African leaders get together to discuss
Robert Mugabe,
and address the appalling economic and political degradation
he's brought to
Zimbabwe? They shuffle around and look at their
shoes.
On Friday, a conference on the subject that wrapped up in Zambia
proved to
be a continental embarassment. The assembled African leaders
refused to even
admit that anything much was the matter in Zimbabwe. In
fact, when Mugabe
adressed the crowd, he got the biggest applause of the
conference's opening
day.
Meanwhile, back in Zimbabwe, people are now
murdering one another over the
country's dwindling food supplies.
Unemployment is anywhere from 50% to 70%,
depending on who you listen to.
Inflation is in five digits.
As recently as 2000, this country, blessed
as it is with some of the best
soil in the world, actually exported food to
its neighbours. But then Mugabe
drove out the white farmers, destroyed
thousands of small businesses in
Harare that were seen to be politically
suspect, transformed the country's
democracy into a one-man dictatorship,
threw out foreign reporters, and
generally transformed the country into an
African version of North Korea
(which, as RW Johnson recently pointed out in
a National Post artice
documenting Mugabe's longstanding admiration for
Pyongyang, is hardly a
coincidence).
Commentators will chalk all this
up to "African solidarity": African leaders
don't want to criticize their
own. But when does "solidarity" become nothing
more than a cover for
cringing political infantilism? In no other part of
the world -- except
perhaps the Arab states -- do nations have such low
standards for how they
and their neighours are governed.
People get the governments they deserve
-- and the West cannot force
Africans to change in this respect. But let us
remember last week's disgrace
the next time African leaders lecture us on
Western racism. If racism is
defined as believing black people to be
undeserving of the good things we in
the West take for granted -- such as,
say, freedom and good governance --
then the biggest racists could be
found, last week, emptying the mini-bars
in Lusaka's best hotels.
jkay@nationalpost.com