Zimbabwe is being destroyed, day by day, by the tyranny of Mugabe. The African leaders cannot ignore the destruction of an entire country. All of black Africa should meet again now to form a united front.

Zimbabwe is being destroyed, day by day, by the tyranny of Mugabe. The African leaders cannot ignore the destruction of an entire country. All of black Africa should meet again now to form a united front.

The AU Observer Team has officially declared that the run-off ballot was not free and fair. One would think then that the results of that ballot are invalidated, that Mugabe cannot be recognised as being legitimate and that the AU under its charter had to take firm action to rectify the situation. The 'firm action'at the very least should be a statement that the AU does not recognise Mugabe as the legitimate president of Zimbabwe.

Instead all the Heads of State could come up with is a statement that it is all very regretable and that they encourage the parties to continue talking. This is not in the least bit surprising, but it is nevertheless depressing to see that Africa as a whole is still at least one to two generations away from embracing the concept of transparent accountable government. Fortunately, there are an increasing number of exceptions to that rule and the edifice of the Big Men of Africa has cracked in the past two months, if only to a limited degree.

In the meantime, the economy in Zimbabwe is going to do what the AU Heads of State declined to do; that is kick Mugabe and his cohorts into political oblivion.