Robert Mugabe is an oddity. The octogenarian politician thinks no one else is fit to rule Zimbabwe. He is also a racist. He wants to win the next election by stirring up racial hatred by claiming that blacks are superior to whites.

Mugabe's antiquated political stand is a challenging philosophy on race relations in Africa. It is coming at a time when Africans seem disinclined to delve deeply into the divisive issues, particularly ones that might lower the generosity of donor countries.

Mugabe was a great freedom fighter. When he took over power the world witnessed a dramatic upsurge in the continuing struggle for equal rights for all Zimbabweans.

The critical fact of Zimbabwean life was basic integration. The current hostility against the whites seems to be entirely different from the hopeful comraderie black and white idealists hoped to establish in a free Zimbabwe. What Mugabe is establishing in his country is reflecting a failure in his leadership, a backward step that the world has to see as such. He is a poor nation builder. One never builds a nation by flexing political muscle and agitating for black political power and exclusive land ownership rights. Yet Mugabe is doing exactly that. Not for the sake of Zimbabweans, but for the sake of the perpetuating despotism.

As a freedom fighter he led assault against white racism, which cut off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder for millions of Africans. Then he championed the cause of the right to earn an honest living for all Zimbabweans.

Today, Mugabe seems to want none of that. All he wants is to take over "white land stolen" from blacks. And he does not want the world to be told anything about it, so he muzzles the Press.

The political challenge in Zimbabwe raises questions for journalists. If they are to hold up their end of democratic dialogue during this crucial time then they must be allowed to participate in the discourse determining the future of that country.

If Mugabe does not agree by tomorrow to grant full access for observers and media during the March 9-10 presidential elections, then he faces sanctions from the European Union. The punitive measures taken by the 15 members of the European Union should be a lesson for any other African dictator who plans to remain in power through election rigging.

Making the announcement in Brussels, the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, used a no-nonsense language, which asked Mugabe to "call off the thugs and allow the media to operate freely and let the people of Zimbabwe make a democratic choice."

Mr Straw told Mugabe he and his key ministers would pay the price if they failed to do so. According to the British Guardian newspaper the sanctions will involve a travel ban on 20 top individuals, including Mugabe and his family, an assets freeze; and a ban on export from EU of arms and dual use equipment that could be used for internal repression.

Apart from that a number of international auditing firms operating in southern Africa have started investigating Robert Mugabe's assets and those of his associates.

Ed Royce, the Chairman of the African Committee of the United States House of Representatives, says top Zimbabwean politicians and army officers are sending money to safe heavens in Europe and United States. They are spending freely abroad while the country's economy is deteriorating. The national treasury is being looted. Profits from highly expensive minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Mugabe has sent an army " to keep peace", are being siphoned abroad in private and personal bank accounts of Mugabe and his friends. Britain and United States are believed to have begun a joint effort to identify the stolen money, which amounts to millions of dollars.

What Mugabe promised to end when he took over power in Zimbabwe was racial discrimination in employment, housing and other social aspects of life. Today he says that his government intends to practice racial discrimination in land ownership with the blacks as the bosses.

It may be true, as it can be verified by history, that the white people of Zimbabwe have been unfriendly, hostile and even aggressive to black people for a long time. Ian Smith organised a white political opinion that represented this hostility and expressed it through what was then known as the Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

The Ian Smith type of racism was wrong; but to practice it in reverse in which there is hate campaign against whites is also wrong. Mugabe is doing just that. Not to help the black people but to retain power.

The methods he is using to achieve his goals are unfair and the people seem to be incapable of doing anything about it. People feel without their consent, without their inside knowledge, and certainly against their will, their country is being turned into what they are cannot accept.

The social grievances, which provoke anti-Mugabe feelings, threaten to be worse before a solution is found. And Mugabe is planning a racial civil war in his country. Yet Zimbabweans know they are going to hear a lot more as the election looms. Incidents of racial violence against whites will multiply.

Two major evils seem to be systematically used to make sure Mugabe will always rule. First, land settlement has been so politicised and is used to victimise white Zimbabweans to win Mugabe black votes.

The second evil is the concentration of power in a few hands among people close to Mugabe. The power is so immense that it gives the group limitless authority to bring compulsion to bear on ordinary citizens.

The events in Zimbabwe make it especially incumbent on us in this country to penetrate beyond mere words when we talk of human rights. We have to examine the assertions made in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The threat by EU to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe shows that the democratic world has a stake in Africa and the future relationship between Africa and the rest of the world will depend on our interpretation of democracy.