History will charge Mbeki harshly over Zim

THERE is no doubt in the minds of right thinking Zimbabweans - and many others in key African and Western capitals - that South African President Thabo Mbeki is now perhaps the only international statesman left whose power and leverage can help resolve the Zimbabwean crisis.

Where there is doubt is whether Mbeki is prepared to eat humble pie and admit that so far, his quiet diplomacy over Zimbabwe has failed and a tougher stance might have to be considered.

While the year that has gone past was tough for Zimbabwe, this new year threatens to be even worse.

Worsening poverty, company closures, unemployment, crumbling State infrastructures such as schools, hospitals and clinics, runaway inflation, the free falling Zimbabwean dollar, hunger and starvation and the general decay in our formerly higher standards of living - by African standards - will all conspire to make 2004 perhaps the most difficult year for many since this country obtained independence from Britain in 1980.

Unless some urgent action to redress the current situation is taken, it is very clear that Zimbabwe in 2004 faces the high risk of experiencing violent civil unrest as happened in the late 1990s as the poor and the marginalised take to the streets in protest against President Robert Mugabe's ruinous policies.

Their anger and desperation - which will be felt on the streets of Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo and many other Zimbabwean towns - will spill over into our more stable neighbours such as South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia, as thousands others try to flee the country.

Elsewhere in this issue, we point out at the symptoms of our sick country such as the rampant HIV/Aids that is wreaking havoc by thrusting onto the impoverished society millions of orphans with no hope and no State or extended family support.

We report that the State medical health system is in the intensive care unit, the government schools are dying and that commercial agriculture is dead and buried. The list of what is wrong with Zimbabwe today cannot be reported on a single issue of a newspaper.

But these are just the symptoms of the disease that is slowly killing our beautiful country. That disease is called "Zanu PF policies" and with it comes the attendant evils of corruption, cronyism and maladminstration.

The funny thing about this killer disease, unlike Aids, is that we all know how it can be cured.

We all know that to cure this dreadful disease we need a combination of expert medical surgery, good or even bitter medication, and rehabilitation.

We know that urgent surgery is needed to get Zimbabwe, the poor and sick man of Africa, from the sick bed and onto the road to recovery.

That surgery is necessary to cut off the diseased part of the Zimbabwean body politic so that only the necessary parts that are vital for our survival are left.

The painful surgery that Zimbabweans of all walks of life - especially those in the ruling Zanu PF party - have to experience is to accept that it is imperative that the old guard within Zanu PF, who regard themselves as vanguards of the revolution who are answerable to no one, should depart from the political stage and allow for fresh ideas to take over.

The South African leader must surely know that he faces the real risk of losing his international stature as one of Africa's hopes if he clings to the notion that the solution to this country's problems lies with continuing to accommodate President Mugabe.

Mbeki has only to slap himself in the face to realise that he actually holds the trump card to restore Zimbabwe - and thereby the rest of southern Africa - to the promised path of development and glory if he gets Mugabe to the negotiation table that would eventually lead to a new constitution and fresh elections.

The other funny thing is that he himself knows that this is the only solution to the Zimbabwean crisis. And he has said so publicly.

And so how can Mbeki get Mugabe to negotiate his own departure? How does he get Gushungo, who sincerely believes he is answerable to no-one and has the divine right to rule Zimbabwe until he dies, to accept that time is up.

Samora Machel and Julius Nyerere used it effectively against Mugabe in the 1970s and finally got him to reluctantly attend the 1979 Lancaster House conference that brought Zimbabwe's independence.

He must threaten to tighten the screws against Harare by withdrawing credit lines and Zimbabwe's important routes to the sea, if that is the pressure needed to get the Zanu PF leader to talk to Morgan Tsvangirai.

To save Zimbabwe and the rest of southern Africa, Mbeki must be prepared to abandon his quiet diplomacy and his own admiration for Mugabe and push for a negotiated settlement that would cleanse Zimbabwe's current pariah status and allow normality to return.

Greetings.

Last summer I had a nice conversation with a Zimbabwean (yeah, here in Grand Rapids, surprised? I was. ;') and he too was bent out of shape about Mugabe, and he's the one who brought it up. He condemned the land seizures, stating that the people who know how to farm should keep the land and keep farming. He said that Zimbabwe has gone from being a food exporter to being on the verge of starvation.

These are probably dead links.

Mugabe says he's ready for a fight, won't retire
by Toby Reynolds
Sun Jun 8, 1:46 PM ET
Declaring his readiness for a fight, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe dismissed protests against his 23-year rule as contrived by the United States and Britain and said he had no plans to quit... He added that pressure to quit from the United States and former colonial power Britain would only harden his resolve... The United States and Britain have led Western condemnation of Mugabe's government, saying his election was fraudulent and that he has driven the country's once bountiful economy into its current state of disrepair, characterised by 269-percent inflation, high unemployment, and shortages of food and fuel. In a rare step, the International Monetary Fund suspended Zimbabwe's voting rights last week as punishment for wrong economic policies and outstanding debts to the Fund... Mugabe accuses Western leaders, particularly Britain's Tony Blair, of colluding with the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to destabilise the country.
Bush Blocks Assets of Zimbabwean President
Friday, March 07, 2003
The executive order Bush signed blocks all property and financial holdings in the United States of Mugabe and 76 government officials. It also bars U.S. citizens from having financial dealings with the listed people. The order states that the Mugabe government's policies are "contributing to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation in that country and to political and economic instability in the southern African region." ...Mugabe has become increasingly authoritarian, spearheading media controls and takeovers of white-owned farms. Those and other policies have led to Zimbabwe's increasing international isolation and raised criticism from opponents at home. The farm seizures and the inability of resettled black farmers to grow enough food have, along with a drought, been blamed for widespread food shortages that relief groups say threaten famine for half of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people. The government's campaign to grab white-owned farms has led to more than two years of political unrest during which scores of political opponents have been killed... The United States has refused to recognize Mugabe as winner of last March's presidential election, which was seen widely as rigged... Last month, the European Union renewed travel restrictions on Mugabe and other Zimbabwean officials. The EU also banned the arms sales to Zimbabwe and froze the country's assets in Europe.
Black Marxists' Inhuman Cruelty To Fellow Black Africans
by Jan Lamprecht
Note - The following is an excerpt of Mr. Lamprecht's forthcoming book on the terror and tribulations of South Africa entitled 'Government By Deception.' Posted by special permission of Mr. Lamprecht.
Mugabe's mobs put diplomats on white hit list
by David Blair in Harare and Christina Lamb
Last week's attacks on the British Council and the manhandling of the Canadian High Commissioner were believed to be just the prelude to attacks on Western diplomats to force them to close embassies before presidential elections that must be held by next April. Hundreds of businessmen have been forced to take refuge abroad and most white families have made emergency escape plans. International condemnation has been restricted so far to the suspension of aid, but the MDC is lobbying to get targeted sanctions such as travel bans imposed on the administration, as they were on Nigeria's generals.
South Africa Approves Mass HIV/AIDS Drug Treatment
Reuters
Nov 19 2003 10:20AM
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's government approved a comprehensive drug treatment program on Wednesday to tackle the world's highest HIV/AIDS caseload, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said.

She told reporters after a cabinet meeting that within one year there would be a national network of centers to distribute anti-retroviral drugs, which the government has long shied away from making available in the public sector.

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