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Terror of Rhodesian bush war days returns

IOL

    May 04 2008 at 08:59AM

By Peta Thornycroft

Harare - There are now about 7 000 casualties of the rapidly worsening
violence in Zimbabwe as the military's campaign against the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) opposition party hots up, according to doctors
treating the injured.

Statistics gathered countrywide in Zimbabwe this week show that only
10 percent of those beaten and tortured are able to get medical treatment.
At least 700 people have been treated since the elections.

A state-registered nurse, part of a small team gathering information
as patients are examined, said on Saturday: "We take statements from those
who manage to get to see medical personnel. We estimate that we only get to
about 10 percent of those who have been attacked, mostly by uniformed
soldiers."

The nurse, who would not be named, said that the violence started
slowly in the Mashonaland East province, where Robert Mugabe's ruling
Zanu-PF suffered defeat in the March 29 election, but had spread throughout
the country.

Until Saturday, the stated number of victims treated by medical
personal remained at about 400, then it was disclosed that the number had
almost doubled.

"We are particularly worried about people with fractures who are still
out there because their injuries will go septic in about a week and there
are no drugs in the government hospitals," the nurse said.

He said older victims of the vicious attacks say that the war they are
now caught up in is as bad as the bush war of the 1970s, when tens of
thousands were caught between Mugabe's insurgents and the forces of the
Rhodesian administration.

He said ambulances could no longer travel into certain areas to pick
up the injured.

Unicef said there were mounting reports of families fleeing the
violence, and of aid groups finding it increasingly difficult to operate.

"We need to ensure an open and safe space for reaching those in need,"
said Dr Festo Kavishe, the UN Children's fund (Unicef) representative in
Zimbabwe.

Many children are being hurt. A 14-month old was admitted to a Harare
hospital on Thursday. She had been beaten unconscious on her mother's back
in an attack by Zanu-PF youths and men calling themselves "war veterans".

The war against civilians is particularly directed against MDC office
bearers and has decimated the party organisation in many rural areas.

About 35 houses in a village near Shamva, about 80km north of Harare,
were burned and smashed this week, ahead of the country learning that Mugabe
had been beaten by Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader.

Wilfred Mhanda, one of Mugabe's top commanders in the 1970s bush war,
whose nom de guerre was Dzinashe Machingura, said this week that an "orgy of
violence" had been perpetrated by state security forces, "complemented by
war veterans, youth militia and Zanu-PF enthusiasts.

"The Mugabe regime descended on the defenceless people of Zimbabwe as
retribution for voting for change. Command structures for the campaign of
violence are now fully operational.

"Mugabe's illegitimate and repressive rule has degenerated into a
fascist dictatorship reminiscent of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge reign of terror in
Cambodia. It is a crime against humanity … and an abomination for former
liberation fighters to indulge in retributive atrocities and human rights
abuses against the people they fought to liberate."

The MDC is meeting in South Africa this weekend to discuss whether it
should take part in the run-off election scheduled for May 19. The official
results of the presidential election gave Tsvangirai 47,9 percent of the
vote and Mugabe 43,2 percent.

If Tsvangirai does not contest the rerun, Mugabe will be sworn in for
a further five years in power. - Foreign Service

This article was originally published on page 1 of Sunday Independent
on May 04, 2008


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Neighbours must verify election results, says MDC

Cape Argus

May 04, 2008 Edition 1

Zimbabwe's Movement for Democtraic Change opposition yesterday held out the
possibility its leader would face President Robert Mugabe in a presidential
run-off, but called on the nation's neighbours to verify the disputed vote
count from the first round.

Thokozani Khupe, vice-president of the MDC, said the party still believed a
run-off was unnecessary, maintaining opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won
the first round outright on March 29.

Results released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission gave Tsvangirai the
lead, but not enough to avoid a run-off with Mugabe. The opposition rejected
those results as fraudulent.

At a news conference yesterday, Khupe called on the Southern African
Development Community to help verify the results. "We still need to be
convinced before we participate in a run-off," she said.

Opposition leaders were meeting this weekend to consider their next step.

The MDC has consistently rejected a run-off, but its stance has appeared to
soften since the official results were released and Mugabe's party said he
would take part in a second round.

On Friday, Tsvangirai's deputy, Tendai Biti, acknowledged that skipping a
second round could mean another term for Mugabe.

Biti said the only way out of the impasse was a power-sharing government led
by Tsvangirai, but with no role for Mugabe.

"The ruling party's bloody crackdown on the opposition makes a free and fair
run-off vote a tragic joke," Georgette Gagnon, Human Rights Watch's Africa
director, said in a statement. - AP


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MDC faces impossible choice over Zimbabwe run-off vote

Independent on Sunday, UK

Taking part would allow Mugabe to steal election, opposition leaders fear

By Raymond Whitaker
Sunday, 4 May 2008

Zimbabwe's opposition leaders face an agonising dilemma today as they meet
to decide whether to contest the second round of the presidential election
against President Robert Mugabe.

On Friday, nearly five weeks after Zimbabweans went to the polls, the
country's nominally independent election committee finally announced that
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), had beaten Mr Mugabe. The margin of victory, 47.9 per cent to
43.2 per cent, contrasted with independent counts which put Mr Tsvangirai
much closer to an overall majority and the MDC's claim that he had won 50.3
per cent of the vote, giving him outright victory.

Since the poll, on 29 March, MDC spokesmen have insisted that to take part
in a run-off would amount to allowing Mr Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party to
steal the election. The long delay in releasing the results, and the wave of
violence that has engulfed former Zanu-PF strongholds, heightened suspicions
that the government wanted to manipulate the first-round results and ensure
victory the next time. "They needed to narrow the gap, so that they can
justify a 'win' for Mugabe in the second round," said David Coltart, an
opposition senator.

No date has yet been announced for any run-off. But the decision now facing
Mr Tsvangirai and his colleagues is whether to refuse to take part, which
would immediately hand victory to Mr Mugabe, or to go ahead, knowing that
thousands of MDC supporters have already been assaulted, burned out of their
homes, and in some cases killed. Since the poll, the MDC leader and his
deputy, Tendai Biti, have remained outside the country, mainly in South
Africa, for fear of arrest or attack. Mr Tsvangirai, who was badly beaten a
year ago during a "prayer rally", has hinted that he fears for his life.

In Johannesburg Mr Biti reflected the difficult choice facing the MDC. He
acknowledged that a boycott would give another term to the 84-year-old Mr
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for the 28 years since independence. But he
said there could not be a run-off because Zimbabwe "is burning", with
economic collapse as well as violence. He said the only way out of the
stalemate was a power-sharing government led by Mr Tsvangirai, but with no
role for Mr Mugabe.

International organisations have also cast doubt on whether conditions for a
fair contest exist. Georgette Gagnon, Africa director of Human Rights Watch
(HRW), said: "The ruling party's bloody crackdown on the opposition makes a
free and fair run-off vote a tragic joke. The violence must stop and an
impartial process be put in place before any new vote is held."

Apart from the violence in rural areas, police have arrested 15 to 20
officials of the Zimbabwe Election Commission on charges of vote-rigging for
the MDC, raided the offices of the country's largest independent poll
monitoring group, and staged a raid on the MDC headquarters in Harare, where
hundreds were arrested.

The situation is worst in Zanu-PF's former strongholds in northern and
eastern Zimbabwe, where it lost many seats to the MDC, forfeiting its
parliamentary majority, and narrowly holding on in several others. Zanu-PF
youth militias and "war veterans" have sought to punish voters for their
disloyalty, with the crackdown reported to be most violent in Mashonaland
East, near Harare.

Tiseke Kasambala, an HRW researcher who has travelled throughout Zimbabwe
during the crisis, told The Independent on Sunday that during her latest
tour, ending a week ago, she had been unable to return to several areas she
had previously visited. Mashonaland East was "totally inaccessible", she
said. "There are roadblocks everywhere, and nobody is allowed in or out. We
have been told of people sleeping in the bush because their homes, crops and
animals have been burned.

"Some have been injured in beatings, but are unable to get treatment. People
have been forced to attend meetings and swear allegiance to Zanu-PF. If they
don't, they are assumed to be MDC and beaten."

Ms Kasambala said she had seen burnt homesteads in Mashonaland West and
Central provinces, and interviewed refugees in the eastern Manicaland region
who spoke of widespread intimidation. "If the MDC goes for a run-off at this
time, it can't win," she concluded, adding that Human Rights Watch was
increasingly concerned at the humanitarian crisis caused by "state-sponsored
violence".

The UN children's agency, Unicef, said there were growing reports of
families fleeing their homes and added that aid groups were finding it
increasingly difficult to operate.


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Mugabe's rival seeks independent count

Scotland on Sunday

Published Date: 04 May 2008
By Angus Shaw
in Harare, Zimbabwe
ZIMBABWE'S opposition yesterday held out the possibility that its leader
would face Robert Mugabe in a presidential run-off, but called on the
nation's neighbours to verify the vote count from the first round.
Thokozani Khupe, vice president of the Movement for Democratic Change, said
the group still believed a run-off was unnecessary, maintaining that
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round outright on March
29.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission released results on Friday, giving
Tsvangirai the lead, but not the clear majority needed to avoid a run-off
with Mugabe.

The opposition rejected those results as fraudulent.

At a news conference yesterday, Khupe called on the Southern African
Development Committee to help verify the results. "We still need to be
convinced before we participate in a run-off," she said.

Opposition leaders were expected to meet this weekend to consider their next
step. No run-off date has been set.

Deputy information minister Bright Matonga said the constitution requires a
second round no sooner than 21 days from the announcement of the results,
and no later than a year.

The opposition has consistently rejected the idea of a run-off, but its
stance has appeared to soften since the official results were released and
Mugabe's party said he would take part.

On Friday, Tsvangirai's deputy, Tendai Biti, acknowledged that skipping a
second round could result in another term for Mugabe.

Biti told reporters in Johannesburg that the only way out of the impasse was
a power-sharing government led by Tsvangirai, but with no role for Mugabe.

Biti also said a run-off would be illegal and there could not be one "for
the simple and good reasons that the country is burning" amid violence and
economic collapse from rampant inflation.

International observers have questioned whether a run-off would be
legitimate, given the violence the opposition has faced.

The opposition's leaders, including Biti and Tsvangirai, have been staying
out of Zimbabwe for fear of arrest.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said: "The ruling Zanu-PF party, the
army and so-called war veterans have conducted a brutal state-sponsored
campaign of violence, torture and intimidation against (opposition]
activists and supporters." The group said limits on the opposition's access
to the media and questions about the impartiality of electoral officials
have also not been addressed.

"The ruling party's bloody crackdown on the opposition makes a free and fair
run-off vote a tragic joke," Georgette Gagnon, Human Rights Watch's Africa
director, said in the statement.

In a separate statement, Unicef said there were growing reports of children
fleeing their homes with their families as a result of political violence,
and aid groups were finding it increasingly difficult to operate.

Mugabe's officials have denied fomenting political violence, instead
accusing the opposition of being behind the widespread unrest.


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Coltart says Zimbabwe media needs transformation

Zimbabwe Guardian

Dyke Sithole

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:02:00 +0000

THE newly elected MDC Senator for Khumalo constituency, David Coltart says
there is need for the transformation of both the public and private media
into critical and analytical institutions of the government of the day and
opposition political parties.

Addressing journalists in Bulawayo during the eve of this year’s world Press
Freedom celebration, Coltart said the MDC if elected into power during the
forthcoming presidential run–offs will allow the public media to criticize
its shortcomings.

“If the MDC forms the next government, we will create enabling conditions
for the independence of both the public and private media. Allowing the
media to be in the hands of government or the ruling party is an unhealthy
situation for democracy,” said Coltart who is a lawyer.

Coltart said in the post Mugabe era there is a need for the private media to
critically probe opposition parties and the government unlike the present
situation where the private media is seen as a mouthpiece for the
opposition.

Coltart said the MDC government will push for the amendments of media laws
in the country—in view of creating freedom of the press and more players in
the industry— which is presently dominated by state controlled media.

The Senator said he strongly believes that foreigners should not be allowed
to control the press, but funding of newspapers and radio stations from
foreigners should not be restricted.

If elected, Coltart said, the MDC government will put more resources into
the training of journalists as well as promote investigative journalism.

Meanwhile the Minister of Information and Publicity Sihkanyiso Ndlovu is
expected today to address the journalists on World Press Freedom day.


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Tsvangirai would be as mad as Bob to stand in these circumstances

Thought Leader. SA

Michael Trapido

 Loading ...
South African President Thabo Mbeki, having failed to query how Zanu-PF knew
the result of the presidential election a month before the ZEC, and ignored
all reports of murder, torture and intimidation which started immediately
thereafter — no doubt in anticipation of the run-off Mugabe had decided on —
has now advised religious leaders that he is sending a team to investigate
the claims of violence being made in Zimbabwe.

This is the same president who urged quiet diplomacy until the world could
no longer bear the atrocities and placed it on the Security Council agenda.
This is the man who believes in the softly-softly approach until our UN team
abandoned all of that in order to side with China.

This is the same president, whose team at the UN could not meet with the MDC
representative in New York, but raced across to meet Mugabe who was
boycotting a meeting by Southern African “leaders” — I use the word in the
broadest possible sense — to try and resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe. Can you
imagine the contempt that Mugabe has for these leaders if he can’t even be
bothered to attend a summit called to assist his own country?

This is the same president who encouraged “quiet diplomacy” while 85% of
Zimbabwe are unemployed, 150 000% inflation exists, there is a life
expectancy of around 35 for adults and a quarter of the Zimbabwean
population live in exile. This is despite the fact that the overwhelming
number of South Africans and Zimbabweans support the end of Mugabe and the
introduction of the new, duly elected Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC.

This is the same president who watched as, prior to elections, Mugabe banned
overseas observers, only allowed government media, stopped rallies, murdered
and tortured his opponents and their supporters, rigged the ballots,
arranged the constituencies to suit his party, ensured that only a certain
amount of MDC voters would have time to cast their ballot and then lost!!!

Mr President, with millions in exile — they’d rather serve tables or work in
gardens than live under Mugabe – with vote rigging and Mugabe’s ZEC counting
the votes — the butcher of Zimbabwe still lost! Can you even begin to
imagine how much Zimbabweans hate Mugabe, and that under these conditions
the ZEC still has had to concede that Mad Bob was beaten.

This is the same president who, post elections, sat back and watched as
Mugabe called it a run-off within days of the election but had the ZEC
furiously counting votes week after week, immediately began a campaign of
murder and intimidation in anticipation of the run-off, boycotted the
summit, used South Africa to block UN intervention, used South Africa to
import Chinese arms until South African unions told them to sod off, forced
thousands more into exile this time via Botswana, arrested his own monitors
for not being biased enough, released the result while the ZEC was going
through the process of verifying the numbers with parties (staggering!) and
now calls for this run-off in conditions more dangerous to Tsvangirai than
those prior to elections?

I have a few questions for Mbeki:

a.. Why are you following a line that is totally indefensible and contrary
to the wishes of the people of South Africa and Zimbabwe?
a.. How can you ever expect Morgan Tsvangirai to stand in a run-off under
these circumstances?
a.. Can South Africans also expect Chinese troops and arms on our streets at
some time in the future if party popularity wanes?
a.. Is recolonisation in Africa acceptable if a “liberation leader” invites
the colonisers?
When all is said and done, why is South Africa doing the dirty work for
Mugabe?

We deserve an explanation as to why this is in the interest of the people of
this country.

Why we don’t load-shed in Zimbabwe, route arms and prop up a regime that is
costing our country billions in caring for the millions of exiles who cannot
bear to live under that tyrant any longer.

Perhaps there is a suitable explanation. I’m sure the whole country would
love to hear it.

 This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm


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The man who embodies Zim's hope for change

IOL

 
       Maureen Isaacson
    May 04 2008 at 09:23AM

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), is not Tom Cruise. Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general and one of
Zimbabwe's top lawyers, says Tsvangirai, the former mineworker who looks set
to rule Zimbabwe, is no actor, nor is he manipulative in the way that
politicians often are.

When the MDC split because of Tsvangirai's decision to vote against
the introduction of the senate to the houses of parliament in October 2003,
Biti was forced to choose between the leadership of Tsvangirai and the
leader of the faction, Arthur Mutambara.

"I chose Morgan because he is a human being with very strong points
and weak points also. If he makes mistakes you know they are bona fide and
this draws loyalty out of people. What you see is what you get," says Biti.

Our political proclivities determine what we see and Mugabe's people
did a good job of discrediting Tsvangirai. But even as the crisis over the
March election rages, (despite the MDC's clear win), we are undoubtedly
looking at a winner.

Tsvangirai has brought 99 seats to parliament, while Mutambara's
faction gained 10. Together this makes a majority and it means that Mugabe
has no power to vote for a national budget, no small feat; certainly a
vindication for Tsvangirai.

This week after the two MDC factions united against the repressive
regime, Mutambara said in an interview: "...given the attempts by [Robert]
Mugabe to sabotage the votes of the people, we are closing ranks and saying
we are going to work together in defending the people's vote. On March 27,
we voted for change. Morgan Tsvangirai is the embodiment of that change."

Tsvangirai embodies revolution. He has always spoken truth to power.
He took on Mugabe, and was, with Arhcbishop Pius Ncube in the 1980s and
Edgar Tekere in the 1990s, a singularly powerful voice of opposition. The
son of a bricklayer, the eldest of nine children, he was forced to abandon
his education to support his family. This was possibly the making of
Tsvangirai, but it has also been his albatross.

His character and leadership are under scrutiny - on the continent,
where he has moved under the shadow of Mugabe's Pan-Africanism - and at home
where struggle credentials were valued as highly as the tertiary education
he lacked. He was made to suffer by Mugabe because he had not fought in the
chimurenga war: the Struggle for Independence.

In 1972, in Ian Smith's Rhodesia, job reservation for whites was in
place. But the white men had gone to war with Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
National Union (Zanu) soldiers and Tsvangirai got a job in a textile
factory, where his union work began.

In a 1990 interview with Richard Saunders, a Canadian academic turned
journalist and researcher, Tsvangirai said: "I was one of the few, maybe 10
or so, "lucky" blacks to have been offered a "white" job at the mine.

"I worked at Trojan [mine] from 1975 to 1985, but within that period I
had risen up to the rank of plant foreman, almost up to the level of general
foreman of the plant, which was considered a middle management position."

He has not lost that common touch. He is powerful and he is popular -
for his empathy as well as for his errors. Solomon "Sox" Chikohwero, the
vice chairman of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Forum, who was the MDC's head of
intelligence until 2003, says: "I don't know if Morgan is a Christian - he
acts like a Christian, though I have never seen him going to church. If he
finds something on someone he takes a long time to act on it. He is
empathetic, as if he was always trying to feel how I am feeling."

Daniel Molokele, a human rights lawyer who, as head of the student
union of the University of Zimbabwe in 1997, worked with Tsvangirai when he
was the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU),
is less flattering: "At the moment he is the only credible leader to
challenge Mugabe but that does not mean we should treat him like an angel.
He is not holy, he is not infallible, he is not the pope.

"He is affable and has a good personality. You can work with him, but
he is not a decisive leader and as a chairperson he does not come across as
a strong leader."

For a time, recently, after the refusal of President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF to release the election results, Tsvangirai went into hiding,
leaving Biti to face the music. Biti made it plain that the movement "was
not in exile but in transition". Tsvangirai has been criticised for this
absence, unfairly, given the violent tactics of Zanu-PF, say those close to
him.

There have been problems. But you cannot forget, says Brian
Raftopolous, who worked closely with Tsvangirai at the end of the 1990s and
in the early 2000s, that Tsvangirai has led the party, which he merged from
the trade unions and civic organisations, in the most difficult of
circumstances and managed to shift people from a liberation movement."

Raftopolous, who is the programme manager of Transitional Justice in
Africa at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, says Tsvangirai has
been immensely brave. "He has the capacity to win the people over. He has a
very good touch with ordinary people. He relates to people's struggles and
has had problems with intellectuals in his party as have many political
parties on the continent."

In May 2006, at a Mutambara faction rally in London, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, a Harare MP, accused Tsvangirai of having failed to
respect the party's constitution. She said he had used coercion and violence
to hold onto his position, Mugabe-style.

Welshman Ncube, the MDC's former secretary-general who joined
Mutambara's MDC, said that 24 youths had been recruited as a kind of
mini-army to defend Tsvangirai's cause. Two months previously, David
Coltart, an MDC senator and shadow justice minister, left Tsvangirai's
faction to join Mutambara's. Coltart says that he disagreed with
Tsvangirai's handling of intra-party violence. "I did not accuse him of
being personally involved in the violence. I felt that he was not direct
enough in stamping it out," he said.

Raftopolous says the violence within the MDC should be seen within the
wider context of Zanu-PF's repression and violence. In response to its own
organisational problems, the MDC set up its structures along parallel lines
with Zanu-PF's, he says. Still it faced problems with accountability,
corruption, uncontained violence and tribalism. These, and problems with
Tsvangirai's "kitchen cabinet", are on the table.

But, these are stressful times for the MDC. And Tsvangirai has
concentrated on - and virtually succeeded in - getting Mugabe out of power.

George Bizos, the advocate who defended Tsvangirai in his high-profile
treason trial in 2004 in Harare, says that Tsvangirai's political nous is
evident in the fact that he has resisted resorting to violence in the face
of Zanu-PF's attacks.

"He understands his constituency, is in touch with what the people
want," says Bizos. "Like [the late] Walter Sisulu, with whom he has in
common a limited education, he is street smart. He is intelligent, but his
lateral intelligence is less developed than Sisulu's, but nonetheless is
there," says Bizos.

The treason trial essentially was the result of a set up. Tsvangirai,
Ncube and Renson Gasela, the shadow agriculture minister, had been
contracted by Ari Ben-Menashe, whom Bizos describes as an Israeli
"professional fraudster". Unbeknown to Tsvangirai, Ben-Menashe had already
been hired by Mugabe. According to Tsvangirai, Ben-Menashe invited him to a
meeting to discuss fundraising. Unbeknown to him the conversation was being
videotaped. When Ben-Menashe mentioned plans to "eliminate Mugabe",
Tsvangirai became suspicious and immediately left. On the basis of doctored
evidence from the video, Tsvangirai was charged with treason.

"He [Ben-Menashe] held himself out as a former Mossad agent, an arms
dealer, a commodity merchant and influential peddler, all of which our
clients had naively believed was true", Bizos wrote in his 2007
autobiography, Odyssey to Freedom.

Bizos says: "In the witness box Tsvangirai was brutally honest with
himself, he paid tribute to Mugabe for his role in the liberation struggle."
He had after all started out in Zanu-PF, before Mugabe's aversion to trade
unions became apparent.

Saunders remembers Tsvangirai in the 1980s as "a brave, charismatic
figure. Morgan was younger and more dynamic. He managed to get people to
rally around him. Strategically he was always thinking ahead all the time
and was willing to compromise with his enemies."

My own impressions of Tsvangirai bear out this bravery. He was the
secretary general of the ZCTU when I interviewed him in August 1999. It was
the week after the union had endorsed the national MDC, which had been
formed that May as a broad civic movement, but not yet as a formal political
party. Tsvangirai was among the leadership candidates.

He pointed out the sheer drop from his 10th floor office in Chester
House in Harare's Speke Avenue. The previous December he had almost been
thrown out of the window. He was beaten by men who he was certain were sent
by Mugabe.

In 1989, he was detained repeatedly. Among his alleged sins was the
accusation of spying for the South African government. "I have grown used to
harassment. I don't care if I get killed. We cannot live like this, we
cannot go on being so poor."

In 1990 inflation was soaring, to what was considered an intolerable
63,7 percent and the International Monetary Fund was getting anxious and
calling for a cutback of 30 percent. Current unofficial estimates place
inflation for the year to April 2008 at higher than 400 000 percent.

I had asked Tsvangirai then if Zimbabwe was on the brink of
revolution. "Of course," he'd answered.

The fruits of that revolution have yet to be realised. The land issue
that Tsvangirai earmarked in 1999 is yet to be resolved. He spoke
specifically in our interview about the consideration of skills in land
redistribution.

Tsvangirai was pleasant, respectful, very sympathetic. He apologised
profusely that the lift at Chester House was broken and that I had walked
the 10 flights to his office. He was warm, accessible.

He was focused. He answered the questions. He did not flaunt the
knowledge I have learned he has in good measure. Tsvangirai, by the account
of those in the know, reads widely, focusing on the lives of leaders, in
particular on Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. He is an avid reader of The
Economist, New African and Newsweek, and newspapers.

Mugabe's characterisation of him as an ignoramus is ridiculous.

Stephen Chan, professor of international relations at the University
of London and dean of law and social sciences at the School of Oriental and
African studies, who in 2005 published a series of interviews with
Tsvangirai, says he has "an instinctive intellectual sense".

Biti describes him as quick on his feet. Everybody I have asked to
characterise Tsvangirai has said that he is a good listener.

Some say that this listening is inclusive, considered and useful. For
some this deference to the collective and to consensus is a weakness. But
when he leads a party that is so directly the opposite of Mugabe's
tyrannical rule, an alternative style of politics will be necessary, says
Raftopoulos.

A criticism: Tsvangirai is impressionable. He takes as gospel what the
last person he has spoken to has said. Biti suggests that "... perhaps he
listens too well. He will have to restrict entry at his door when he assumes
office."

Chan, the author of several books on Africa, including Grasping
Africa: A Tale of Tragedy and Achievement (2007), proposes that Tsvangirai
" … give more time to framing his responses and to reflection after having
talked to a wide number of people".

Whether he is cut out for the hot seat is not yet clear, but Biti says
he is confident that Tsvangirai "...has this quiet acknowledgment of the
fact that he has a duty and a responsibility and that history has chosen
him".

Bizos, and many others I have spoken to say that Tsvangirai is "a good
man". In Africa and elsewhere, such a man is notoriously hard to find. And
he is humble, by all accounts.

Chan says that while Tsvangirai, like most of the Southern African
Development Community leaders, likes a bit of bling, at home he tends his
garden in shirt sleeves. He enjoys a quiet night in. He is attached to his
wife and his six children. Hopefully, he is never going to become a "Big
Man". He's learned the hard way that Africa has had one too many of those.

But it is early to judge him as a ruler, Raftopolous says. "We must
give him the benefit of the doubt."

This article was originally published on page 9 of Sunday Independent
on May 04, 2008


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Zimbabwe crisis divides Africa's leaders

africasia

JOHANNESBURG, May 4 (AFP)

The crisis in Zimbabwe has exposed divisions among southern African nations
who have traditionally supported each other against what they perceive as
Western interference, analysts said.

The rifts in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), a 14-member
regional bloc, are mainly between countries led by anti-colonial national
liberation leaders and heads of state driven by a more pro-Western agenda.

Neo Simutanyi, political science lecturer at the University of Zambia, said
there is a view among the old guard that Western nations wants to replace
leaders such as Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe with "imperialist
agents."

"The situation has been worsened by the fact that young leaders are
departing from the old culture of solidarity. They want to publicly condemn
when things are going wrong in a neighbouring country," Simutanyi said.

A generation of new African leaders, riding on the agenda of democracy and
good governance, has emerged within SADC and wants to change the culture of
solidarity between comrades-in-arms based on old friendships.

"The leaders pushing for a hardline stance on Zimbabwe are either third or
fourth presidents of their respective countries. They have no strong links
to the liberation struggle," said Kapembe Nsingo, chairman of the African
Renaissance Institute, a think tank in South Africa.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa -- backed by his Botswanan counterpart Ian
Khama and Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete -- are said to be the only vocal leaders
within SADC who have demanded intervention in Zimbabwe.

Mwanawasa and Khama are third heads of states while Kikwete is the fourth.

"It is difficult for the old leaders to openly share information with the
young breed of leaders because they don't trust them," Nsingo said.

Mwanawasa, chairman of SADC, which was formed in 1980, is a vocal critic of
the government in Harare and has come under constant attack by allies of
Mugabe, who perceive him as an agent of neo-colonialism.

It is no wonder, analysts argue, that SADC has failed to resolve the
stand-off in Zimbabwe since the SADC-appointed mediator, South African
President Thabo Mbeki, is biased towards liberation hero Mugabe.

"Mbeki is a 'scion' of liberation movements. There is no way he can dump
President Mugabe at this critical moment," said Campion Mereki in an opinion
piece published in Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper.

Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its
leader Morgan Tsvangirai have often been accused by Zimbabwe officials of
receiving financial support by outside powers to pursue an imperialist
agenda.

The main leaders in SADC who have not condemned Mugabe publicly include
Mbeki, Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, Namibian President Hifikepunye
Pohamba and Mozambican President Armando Guebuza.

All these heads of state share a common background of taking part in the
liberation struggle and believe in offering each other solidarity in times
of trouble, analysts said.

For the Herald commentator, the outside threat against the liberation
struggle is not in doubt. "The West wants to wipe out all liberation
movements in Africa, especially in southern Africa," he argued.


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Cash shortages, long queues again hit Zimbabwe banks


Irish Sun
Sunday 4th May, 2008

Cash shortages and long queues at banks have returned in Zimbabwe.

The crisis comes days after the central bank governor announced that
consumers and businesses would be able to withdraw significantly more from
their accounts on a daily basis.

Sources in Harare and Bulawayo reported unusually long queues at banks
leaving some customers without cash when banks closed for the day. In Harare
and Bulawayo financial institutions were dispensing relatively smaller
denominations of Z$750,000 and Z$10 million and ATMs in both cities were
empty by late in the day.

Some banks in Mutare, Manicaland Province, had Z$25 million and Z$50 million
dollar notes but limited withdrawals to Z$1 billion, not the Z$5 billion
limit which Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono announced on Wednesday.

Gono unveiled a number of policy changes in his quarterly policy statement,
among them the establishment of a 'twinning' arrangement to bring together
willing buyers and sellers of foreign exchange - albeit subject to central
bank review.

Some economists attribute such cash shortages to hyperinflation - as prices
soar, the requirements for cash expand across the entire economy. Zimbabwe's
inflation rate was last officially given as 165,000% for February.

Director Dennis Nikisi of the Graduate School of Management at the
University of Zimbabwe told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the latest cash shortages reflect higher demand due to soaring
prices for goods and services, and inadequate issuance of notes by the
central bank.


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The tragedy of Zimbabwe

Jamaica Gleaner

published: Sunday | May 4, 2008

Ian Boyne, Contributor

"An evil remains an evil whether practised by white against black or black
against white".
- Robert Mugabe, 1980.

If only that African dictator Robert Mugabe could internalise those words of
his, uttered on the eve of independence in 1980, we might have been spared
all that canard about "Western colonialism and imperialism," which has been
used to mask his naked oppression of his fellow black people in that tragic
land of Zimbabwe.

Fortunately, through one of the relics of British colonialism - a
competitive electoral system - the people of Zimbabwe might have the
opportunity to be rid of him after 28 years. Mugabe's rape of his people and
his squandering of their opportunity for liberation provide a sad reminder
of the colossal failure of the post-independence leaders of Africa, who are
distinguished more by their kleptocracy and autocracy than by any democratic
impulse.

The country has sunken

Morgan Tsvangirai, whom all indications show has won over Mugabe in the
recent elections, might not turn out to be vastly different from Mugabe, but
there are inducements which can be given by the United States, Europe and
the Commonwealth which would make life easier for the Zimbabwean people.

Mugabe has sunk Zimbabwe from the fastest-growing African country in 1997,
with some of the richest farmland in Africa, to a country where, incredibly,
inflation now runs at 165,000 - the highest on the globe. GDP has shrunk by
over 45 per cent since 1998 and 80 per cent of Zimbabweans are jobless. The
country has moved from one which used to be a net exporter of maize, cotton,
tobacco, roses and sugar cane to one which exports "only its educated
professionals" as the Atlantic Monthly puts it in an article titled "How to
kill a Country" (December 2003). More than one-third of all of Zimbabwe's 13
million population now need food assistance.

Life expectancy

More alarmingly, life expectancy has dropped from 61 years in 1990 to 37 for
men and 34 for women in 2006. And UNICEF estimates that well over one
million Zimbabwean children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

Mugabe's disastrous economic policies, exacerbated by his misguided policy
of expropriating the land of white landowners, have plunged the country into
ever-deepening crisis, complete with his autocratic and criminal rule. The
manufacturing sector has almost ground to a halt and gold producers are
operating below one-fifth of capacity.

The private sector has been crippled by Mugabe's plans to indigenise 51 per
cent of major commercial enterprises. Price controls and other failed
economic strategies of the dogmatic Left have guaranteed the ruination of
the economy.

Honour-bound

Over three million Zimbabweans are estimated to have fled the country, many
to neighbouring South Africa. Zimbabwe now needs to be liberated from the
man who liberated it from white racist rule. And yet, there are still
progressives who feel honour-bound to defend Mugabe against his "Western
detractors". In their view, the Zimbabwean economy has been wrecked by the
British colonialists and the US imperialists in retaliation over the take
over of land owned by white people. The Zimbabwean revolution was going well
until the colonialists and imperialists sought to punish Mugabe for
exercising his sovereignty.

This kind of mindless, supposed Pan-Africanism and African nationalism can
be seen in the magazine New African which, in its May 2008 edition
("Zimbabwe on a knife-edge"), continues the myth-making. Says the main
article written by someone reporting from the front lines in Zimbabwe: "The
trick has always been to gradually wear down the people of a targeted
country via economic hardships and thus push them slowly towards an
imaginary 'tipping point' from where they will kick against the government.
The tipping point has been almost reached in Zimbabwe and the results of the
29 March elections were just a reflection and confirmation of that fact. In
other words, the people voted with their stomach".

50-50 split

Parallels are then drawn with Chile, though the writer noted - apparently
with some relief - that in the case of Mugabe he "still managed to hang on
and split the vote 50-50 with the opposition", while managing to keep his
life, unlike Allende.

Mugabe had been saying since 2000, when he began his forced expropriation of
the land of white landowners, that the British were working to overthrow him
and that they were funding the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).

The New African magazine quotes foreign minister Dr Stanley Mudenge as being
told by former British foreign secretary, the late Robin Cook : "Stan, you
must get rid of Bob (Mugabe)" The magazine says the Zimbabwean foreign
minister was shocked. But Cook reportedly went on: "You heard me right. You
guys must get rid of Bob". Mudenge then said something which is very
significant and which is the sentiment of many in the progressive movement:
"So long as you want him out, we want him in."

Cook then told him, according to the report: "Don't say we didn't warn you.
If you don't get rid of Bob, what will hit you will make your people stone
you in the streets!" And then New African ends, "Cook's words nearly came to
pass on 29 March!"

Africans, who have suffered under the cruel and tyrannical hands of the
white colonialists, and the progressives throughout the world, who have
understood how Western imperialism has suffocated the lives of large numbers
of people, have to find a way around a knee-jerk support for dictators with
black faces and those with an anti-Western posture. That you are
anti-colonialist and an anti-imperialist does not give you the right to
oppress people, deny them freedom of association and freedom of expression.

Distraction

This is why I have always maintained that Cuba must stand condemned, despite
its impressive human development indices, because of its denial of civil
liberties and human rights. Man shall not live by bread (or cassava!) alone.
For too long the "anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist" flag has been waved as
a distraction from the brutal oppression of the masses by the criminal and
corrupt class of political leaders.

And, too often, they have carried out their atrocities under the shield of
"territorial integrity" and "national sovereignty". What gives political
leaders the right to oppress and commit crimes against people simply because
they are locked up in borders over which they have political control? The
debate which is raging in international law and politics over the
Westphalian notions of sovereignty and "non-interference in the internal
affairs of states", as opposed to "the responsibility to protect" people in
the global commons from human rights abuses must continue - for the good of
humanity.

Countries have signed international treaties and conventions and they must
live up to them or face punitive actions from the international community.
The African Union has been impotent in dealing with the barbarities of
African countries, because of the legalism over territorial integrity and
sovereignty. Mbeki has been engaging in quiet diplomacy for a long time,
while Mugabe continues his plunder of people's rights and to murder his
opponents.

There is too much hypocrisy and double-standards among African leaders and
progressives when it comes to principles. For many, it is not the principles
themselves which are sacrosanct but which side happens to be espousing them.

If the United States and other Western countries do certain things or behave
in a certain way, then they are wrong and must be condemned, but it is okay
if our friends and ideological allies do those very same things.

Secret negotiations

As the International Herald Tribune says in its April 17th edition ('The
Silence of Mbeki'), Despite the fact that in late 2007 Mbeki presided over
secret negotiations between Mugabe and the Zimbabwean opposition on a new
constitution which included major reforms and democratic safeguards, Mugabe
rejected Mbeki's efforts and conducted the elections under the old
constitution. (And he still does not want to give up power though he has
lost on all counts.)

Says the International Herald Tribune: "Mbeki's refusal to condemn Mugabe
and lead a regional diplomatic front to pressure him to honour the vote -
either by holding a fair runoff or stepping down - is particularly
disappointing because he and other anti-apartheid activists condemned
Western countries for precisely that sort of softball diplomacy during the
1980s. When the African National Congress called for universal suffrage and
sanctions against the apartheid regime, the Reagan Administration, instead,
pursued a gradual policy of 'constructive engagement'". And that, of course,
was condemned.

"Quiet diplomacy"

Says the Council on Foreign Relations October, 2007, report titled Planning
for Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe, "Many within Zimbabwe and in the international
community had pinned their hopes on the South African Government for
effective international action to help resolve Zimbabwe's crisis. South
Africa has leverage as Zimbabwe's most significant trading partner and is a
major supplier of electricity to Zimbabwe. But its policy of 'quiet
diplomacy' has been a loud failure to the Zimbabwean masses."

China also has been propping up the Zimbabwean dictatorship, being birds of
one feather in terms of sharing a common authoritarian ideology. (In the
midst of the Zimbabwean terror, China recently shipped more arms to Mugabe.)

Zimbabwe's sadness is shared by many of us. I remember sitting close to
Mugabe, the African freedom fighter, in the canteen of the then Agency for
Public Information (now JIS) in the 1970s when he was brought here by
Michael Manley. He spoke passionately of his desire to liberate his people
from white oppression and to bring a new day to Zimbabwe. That day has
turned into a nightmare under his misrule.

Many of us might recoil from the right-wing vituperation of George Ayittey,
distinguished economist at American University, set forth in his 481-page
book, Africa Unchained: The Blueprint for Africa's Future.

But we can't go on blaming all of Africa's ills on colonialism and
imperialism. That would be a cruel disservice to the people who have to live
under the tyranny and corruption of some in the African political class.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com


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ANCYL disappointed with Mugabe

SABC

May 04, 2008, 07:30

ANC Youth League President Julius Malema has expressed disappointment at the
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for refusing to make way for new blood.

He was addressing party members during the Peter Mokaba memorial lecture in
Kimberley yesterday.

Malema urged Mugabe to learn from the ANC's Limpopo conference where
President Thabo Mbeki was voted out as ANC president.

"Those are the great lessons you must learn from the leadership of the
ANC... We don not support Morgan Tsvangarai ourselves as the youth league,
our party is Zanu PF.

“We have struggled... the problem is the old man who doesn't want to give
space and allow the new generation and young generation in Zanu-PF and this
has disappointed us.”

The people of Zimbabwe are still waiting for the results of the elections
which were held last month.

No result has been announced to the public yet, but senior government
sources said Tsvangirai won 47% of the vote against the president's 43%. If
confirmed, that would mean that a run-off is necessary in that country.


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The show must go on



Zimbabwe put aside its troubles last week for a spectacular festival of
music and dance

Sunday May 4, 2008
The Observer

Given that Zimbabwe has for a long time been staging a drama before a
worldwide audience, it's amazing that anyone felt it necessary to mount an
arts festival. But someone did 10 years ago, and the Harare International
Festival of the Arts (HIFA) has been running ever since. Perhaps when the
world is looking in your direction and counting down to economic and civil
collapse, the only thing to do is to build a giant stage and start thinking
the impossible.

This week audiences have been flooding into Harare for the annual six-day
event, and the capital has been engulfed in a refreshingly bright and
effervescent carnival atmosphere. Thanks to a clutch of donors and sponsors,
tickets are so heavily subsidised that they're almost free.
The opening show was a spectacular event, structured around the story of
Dreamworld, a beautiful land once full of singing and dancing until the
people, dressed in pyjamas (or were they prison uniforms?), were repressed
by their king, an effigy bearing an uncanny resemblance to Robert Mugabe,
Zimbabwe's President since 1980.

The audience was treated to a mixture of musical styles as the allegory of
their nation was acted out. Songs included a rendition of the Cranberries'
'Zombie', sung by Prudence Katomeni, her voice stretching the word zombie to
echo Zimbabwe. Evocative, too, was Bob Marley's 'Zimbabwe'. By the close,
everyone was swaying with candles.

Afterwards, one spectator said that while 'Mandela will always be a hero
because he changed South Africa and then left with dignity, Mugabe has
become a villain because he won't go'. Appropriately, perhaps, the official
theme for 2008 is 'Determination'.

Yet as Dobet Gnahoré, a musician from the Ivory Coast, intoned wearily: 'I'm
tired of politics in Africa.' If the arts can be political, they can also be
defiantly apolitical. In the words of Manuel Bagorro, the festival's
inspirational founder and now its dapper artistic director: 'The arts bring
people together, providing a vocabulary for understanding our predicament
and a venue for communal experience.'

Strutting the boards were numerous home-grown acts, such as Impumelelo
Shining Stars, a witty a cappella band, and Oliver Mtukudzi, the Afro-pop
idol whose 30-year career charts a narrative of Zimbabwe's struggles, as
well as bands that had jetted in from across the world. There was
Freshlyground, a South African Afro-fusion band, Trio Ivoire, who astonished
with their sonic waterfall of piano, xylophone and drums, and Cañaman,
Spain's best known reggae group. To see the London Festival Opera singing,
accompanied by the Zimbabwe National Ballet, was to witness arias to freedom
and a choreography of hope.

HIFA has not been without controversy. Some have boycotted it, saying that
it's wrong to celebrate when the country is so beleaguered. That said, after
guffawing at one of the stand-up comedians, a nurse observed that 'if you
don't laugh here, you'll cry'.

'At our businessmen's prayer breakfast at 5.30 this morning,' reported one
attendee, '15 hardened executives gave thanks for the miracle of HIFA.' No
work of art ever stopped a tank - or reversed an election outcome - but the
HIFA brought some relief in another week of political turmoil.

The writer asked to remain anonymous


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Can liberal democracy save Zim?

IOL

    May 04 2008 at 10:39AM

By Patrick Laurence

As the controversy over the Zimbabwean March 29 elections reaches a
new level of acrimony on the question of whether the presidential election
result has been skewed in favour of Robert Mugabe, it is appropriate to
pause and appraise the significance of events in Zimbabwe over the past
month.

A broadly based conclusion can be confidently offered: Mugabe's grip
on unfettered power has finally been broken, even if he succeeds in
prolonging his tenure of the presidential office for a few more months.

The officially confirmed results of the parliamentary elections
affirmed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as the winner,
thereby conferring control of the legislative and budgetary processes on it.

he MDC's dominance in the national assembly has been reinforced by an
agreement between Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, the leaders of the
MDC's majority and minority factions respectively, to act in concert. Their
pledge to form a single bloc "with one caucus and one speaker" means that
the MDC will command the allegiance of 57 percent of the national assembly's
representatives against the 43 percent who were elected under the colours of
Zanu-PF.

Aside from the restraints imposed on a putatively re-elected Mugabe
presidency by an MDC-controlled national assembly, the octogenarian
politician will be constrained by the consequences of his earlier reckless
decisions on the economic front, should he reoccupy the presidential office
by coercion and stealth. These decisions include:

a.. His destruction of the flourishing agricultural sector by handing
over viable farms to "war veterans", Zanu-PF cronies and peasants without
the resources or qualifications for large-scale farming.

The inflow of yet more virtually worthless notes has merely compounded
the already severe problem of inflation. At present it is running at 165 000
percent compared to 100 000 percent before the election.

Seen in the context of an unemployment rate of 80 percent or more, a
national debt measured in quadrillions and a severe shortage of foreign
currency, it is no exaggeration to conclude that Zimbabwe is degenerating
into an ungovernable failed state.

Only an international aid package can avert collapse. The countries
with the power and resources to offer the package will, however, make their
aid dependent on Mugabe either vacating the presidential office or being
expelled from it.

So much for the immediate implications of post-election events in
Zimbabwe: the less immediate - but by no means less significant -
implication foreshadows the weakening of the solidarity between the leaders
of the liberation movements who came to power in the former white-ruled
polities in Southern Africa.

Moeletsi Mbeki, the independent-thinking younger brother of President
Thabo Mbeki, offers an interesting explanation for the failure of Mugabe's
presidential peers in Southern Africa to take decisive action to persuade
him to desist from pursuing his disastrous polices.

He notes that these policies resulted in a huge exodus of Zimbabweans
seeking refuge in neighbouring countries with, by his reckoning, between 2
million and 3 million fleeing to South Africa and, for the most part,
settling there illegally.

He views the exodus as a potentially destabilising intrusion into the
host countries. He adds a corollary: had a similar exodus occurred in Asia,
decisive action would have been taken by the neighbouring states to induce
the offending government to abandon its disruptive policies.

Moeletsi Mbeki attributes the failure of Mugabe's peers in Southern
Africa to intervene resolutely to their fear that the rise and triumph of
the MDC in Zimbabwe would encourage the emergence of similar opposition
movements in their own countries. If his explication is true of the
situation before Zimbabwe's March 29 election, there is evidence that it may
no longer hold, evidence that is most strongly manifest in South Africa.

Under the leadership of Jacob Zuma, the ANC has abandoned the "quiet
diplomacy" approach of Thabo Mbeki towards the Mugabe regime.

Instead, it has embraced "megaphone diplomacy" to call loudly and
unequivocally for the long-delayed results of the election to be announced
without delay, hinting that they interpreted it as a cover for dishonest
manipulation of results.

To his credit, Zuma has openly defended the right of Zimbabweans to be
ruled by a government of their choice, a stance which, in the context,
implies that the right is under threat by Mugabe. More directed criticisms
of the Mugabe regime have long been voiced by the ANC's allies, the South
African Communist Party and Cosatu.

Instead of seeking to restrain them, the ANC has joined them and, more
significantly, may be preparing to lead them.

Taking an even longer historical view, it might be argued that the
growing opposition to oppression in Zimbabwe is part of a wider phenomenon.
Just as the world - or major parts of it - took a stand against slavery in
the 19th century, and Nazism in Germany and apartheid in South Africa in the
20th century, it may now be beginning to take a hard line against
Afro-fascism in Zimbabwe in the 21st century.

These observations should be appraised in the context of the thoughts
of Francis Fukuyama, the author of The End of History and the Last Man. He
postulates that liberal democracy, which was pioneered in the West, may
become universal and the "end point of mankind's ideological evolution" and
the "the final form of human government".

Fukuyama calculates that the number of liberal democracies in the
world has grown from three in 1790 - when, by his evaluation, it was the
chosen form of government in the United States, Sweden and France - to 30 in
1960 and more than 60 in 1990.

Since then the establishment of liberal democracies in South Africa
and in several former one-party states in Africa has increased the number
still further. The re-establishment of liberal democracy in Zimbabwe may
soon add another important state.

Independent political analyst Patrick Laurence is a contributing
editor to The Star

This article was originally published on page 5 of Sunday Independent
on May 04, 2008

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