Chege Mbitiru
26 March 2007
opinion
Nairobi — A Botswana newspaper last week recalled two events.
Due to shabby reporting, a Daily News writer provided no dates. Personalities mentioned though make the events generally dateable.
Early 1980s, Zimbabwean troops were battling President Robert Mugabe's opponents in Matabeleland.
Botswana's President Ketumile Masire hosted presidents of Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A crowd in a stadium applauded the guests, minus one.
When Sir Ketumile announced Mr Mugabe's entrance, the crowd froze. He tried again. Silence! On another occasion, a Botswana tradition leader, Kgosi Linchwe II, refused to tone down a written speech welcoming Mr Mugabe. Mr Mugabe took another route. Botswanas had foresight.
Those were the hay days of The Big man. Big Man's misdeeds met, in a manner of speech, a shrug. "It's a shaggy dog, but it's our dog." However, some Botswanans had no qualms with "But it's deliberately getting shaggier."
Why is all this relevant? Well, the spirit the Botswanas demonstrated isn't fashionable yet.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said as much recently. "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?' "
The archbishop only added a voice to ongoing criticism of Mr Mugabe. A confrontation between police and "worshipers" in a Harare sparked it. Organisers billed the fete as a "prayer rally." Actually, organisers meant to bash Mr Mugabe.
Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, showed up.
Authorities said "thugs" attacked police. Police actually went to stop the banned rally and did so.
It seemed to police Mr Tsvangirai resembled a red flag to a Spanish bull. Police fired teargas canisters and beat up anyone in sight, arrested an injured Mr Tsvangirai and scores and shot dead one person. A witness told the BBC he and a few others in a crowd of about 1,000 fought back, for the first time.
Both sides can claim rights. However, what harm other than wounded ego, would utterances at the rally have caused Mr. Mugabe? The police brutality only gave Mr Mugabe's enemies more ammunition and an opportunity to recount his misdeeds.
The United States held Mr Mugabe personally responsible for the beatings. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett suggested the UN Human Rights Council investigates the goings-on in Zimbabwe.
Initial reaction from African political leaders wasn't worth a line to Grandma. Pressure mounted on South Africa, externally and internally, to lean on Mr Mugabe's government. Pretoria didn't get it and tried to stymie a UN Security Council briefing on the Zimbabwe crisis.
Lamely, the Cabinet, not President Thabo Mbeki, said the "beatings were unacceptable" and emphasized the need for dialogue in Zimbabwe. Nothing new!
Ghana's President John Kufuor, current African Union chair, offered the lamest excuse for continental do-nothing. He wondered whether the world expects African nations to send a military expedition to Zimbabwe. "We are in our various ways trying very hard," he said. Really?
Political chaos
However, Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa got to the verb. Zimbabwe equals "political chaos and economic meltdown." He likened the country "to a sinking Titanic whose passengers are jumping off in a bid to save their lives."
Regional leaders, and particularly Mr Mbeki's silent diplomacy, had failed. Mr Mugabe told critics "go hang."
On Friday, he blamed his woes on his perennial scapegoats: "little fellows like Bush and Blair." Who is kidding? It's a truism to say Zimbabweans are suffering. That's only part of the story. Some people in Mr Mugabe's divided political machine, Zanu-PF party, prefer him aside. They obviously don't wish to inherit a bigger mess than Zimbabwe already is.
A non-productive and volatile Zimbabwe is very bad in every way for Southern Africa, indeed much of Africa.
Most frightening though is that continental do-nothing possibly indicates Africa's political big wigs fear their turn might come. That would mean emerging democratisation is a veneer. Ironically, Mr Mugabe might be the person to bring about that realisation.
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