Cape Town — Africans should "hang our heads in shame" at this week's suppression of opposition protest in Zimbabwe, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said today.

In a statement issued by his office in Cape Town, Tutu asked: "How can what is happening... elicit hardly a word of concern let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa?"

"What more has to happen before we who are leaders, religious and political, of our mother Africa are moved to cry out 'Enough is enough'? Do we really care about human rights, do we care that people of flesh and blood, fellow Africans are being treated like rubbish, almost worse than they were ever treated by rabid racists?"

Earlier this week, Zwelinzima Vavi, secretary-general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), said events in Zimbabwe showed that South Africa's policy of "silent diplomacy" had not worked.

Tutu, the Anglican archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, said he was thankful that Cosatu had spoken out. "I share their consternation at the silence from those we would have expected to speak out on behalf of the voiceless, the powerless ones," he added.