Don-Martin Ropafadzo
28 November 2008
opinion
It is abhorrent that Zimbabweans are made to be hopeful about deliverance at the turn of every month.
The whole exercise of these talks is a misdirected effort because the world is trying to force Zimbabweans into accepting Mugabe's loss as a win.
Mediators are trying to accommodate a loser without the voters' permission; they are trying to force Zimbabweans to forgo their democratic right and partake of the kind of political chicanery that pervades Africa.
Less than a year ago, the African Union sent Kofi Annan into Kenya to broker a deal along the same lines as the ones now refusing to take hold in Zimbabwe.
A few days ago, Kenyan Prime minister Raila Odinga, strongly suggested that the African Union should send a peace-keeping force into Zimbabwe "to keep Mugabe in line".
Obviously, Odinga should rightly feel short-changed by the African Union.
He won the December 2007 elections against Mwai Kibaki, but Kibaki refused to accept defeat, setting off a bloody internal power struggle.
Because of the ensuing violence and killings, Odinga accepted Annan's "solution" of having the position of Prime Minister created for him and leave the loser, Kibaki, as president.
Decidedly, Odinga accepted this arrangement with an unmistakable desire to make it work; to save people's lives and to save Kenya whose reputation had taken a bad knock.
Even though Kenya has not fully recovered from Annan's bad political prescription, it has become obvious to all and sundry that efforts from the opposing camps are trying to make it work.
Odinga has every right to voice his outrage at SADC, the AU and the world at large for such double standards being applied on Zimbabwe.
He was forced to accept what he should not have accepted, but did it in good faith. Hardly four months after the Kenyan electoral fiasco, the cowardly SADC, through Thabo Mbeki, arm-twisted Zimbabwean opposition into signing an agreement to power-sharing.
Mugabe stalled and slyly waited for the AU to prescribe the same 'settlement' as they did in Kenya.
The AU, useless and offering uninspiring leadership like SADC, had set a precedent to say an African leader who loses an election need not leave office.
And, predictably, the disgraceful African 'mediators' took the bait and issued the very same prescription for Zimbabwe.
The problem, however, is that, unlike the Kenyans, there was neither honesty involved nor was there any intention on the part of Robert Mugabe to act in good faith.
Now we have a problem bigger than we had before the elections.
Before the elections, we knew Mugabe was president, through whatever means he got there, and that Morgan Tsvangirai was the leader of the opposition.
After the elections and SADC/AU intervention, the loser, Mugabe, who had turned into the leader of the opposition, remained the leader of the opposition party but one that still remained as the governing party.
Now Zimbabwe is governed by an opposition party while the 'ruling' party remains as an opposition party.
The opposition party won the elections and turned itself into the ruling party,. But, funny enough, the ruling party, the former opposition party, still remains the opposition party.
So much for African solutions to African problems!
Months after an agreement was signed, Mugabe, who is still president of the country, refused to accept the terms of the very document that gave him legitimacy and one which he himself signed, even though his functionary, a non-descript former struggling lawyer called Patrick Chinamasa, Mugabe's 'Justice minister' had made changes to the original document without the knowledge of other participants.
Under the right circumstances, Chinamasa, the lawyer, would call it forgery, but these people are fighting for survival and laws be damned!It, therefore, discourages me a great deal that the same people who participated and scuttled the previous agreement on which the nation had laid so much hope, should be the very same ones involved at these talks.
Why is the forging of that document not any issue and why is it being down-played? Why has nothing been done about the violation that was committed?
But the African Union, SADC and South Africa still continue to debate with people who have shown bad faith and even doctored important documents.
Some African leaders now find it better and more effective to work "outside" the AU and SADC.
Botswana and Zambia have lost patience, not only with Mugabe but with SADC and the AU.
Meanwhile, South Africa appears to be slowly moving in that direction.
It is inspiring to see an African leader, like Botswana's Ian Khama, taking such an initiative to right the situation in the region.
South Africa, through the lackadaisical pro-Mugabe Thabo Mbeki, ignored the Zimbabwean issue for years at the same time that Botswana's Festus Mogae did.
Now they do not have to contend with the murderous Zimbabwean dictator only; now our neighbours have to contend with such manageable issues as a cholera outbreak.
While South Africa has started to treat Zimbabwean cholera sufferers just across the border from Zimbabwe at Beit Bridge and Messina, Botswana has reported a cholera incident in east central Botswana.
Mugabe is not going to infect the whole region with bad politics and economics but with diseases as well.
South Africa should shoulder the blame because they took care of Mugabe when the whole world was screaming for action. South Africa should not complain but I honestly hope that the cholera outbreak does not hit their nation.
But if it does, one Thabo Mbeki should be brought to account for his mindless attitude towards the Zimbabwean tragedy.
When human rights abuses are being chronicled and when the culprits are being called and lined up to answer for their actions, Thabo Mbeki's name must, of necessity, come immediately after Mugabe's name.
This man Mbeki did, and continues to do, more damage to Zimbabwe and the region than some people would care to admit.
Even now, marooned in a political wilderness, he pathetically clings to the discredited man who has killed so many and, to this day, continues to do so.With this cholera outbreak, Mugabe is about to open his other chapter on genocide.
Is there an African president on this continent who can recognize the suffering of children, women and the defenseless elderly?
Is there an African leader out there who cares about the starvation of a nation?
Find us an African president out there who cares enough about malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS not one who steals from our desperate afflicted?
It is time to get rid of Mugabe and his government...by any means necessary.
It is both distressing and surprising to me that Africa, with 54 countries and an equal number of heads of state, Botswana's Ian Khama appears to be the only one of this elite group to see that Mugabe must be removed now because Zimbabweans have suffered enough and need to be assisted; that the region has suffered long enough to the detriment and impoverishment of SADC citizens.
Surely, African leaders will not allow Mugabe to breed cholera for Africa.
Africa must recognise when a liberator has turned into a genocidal maniac.
Mugabe, a perceived hero to some Africans across the continent, went into Ian Smith's jails and came out with a degree or two. He brags about degrees he acquired by correspondence while in Smith's jails.
Would he have achieved that if he were suffering or had he been abused by Smith?But, conversely, those detained by Mugabe for absolutely no reason at all came out with nothing, and without their health. Most of them die a couple of months after release.
Thanks to Ian Smith, Mugabe is in his 85th year now.
Now imagine what Zimbabweans would be going through if Mugabe had suffered under Ian Smith!
Mugabe lost the elections and should be treated as such by the AU and SADC.
There should not be any accommodating of this man. Diplomacy should be reserved for those who respect humanity.
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