It is now quite clear to all and sundry that Zimbabwe needs not only help but action. Real action!
The tragedy in Zimbabwe long ceased to be a Zimbabwean problem.
I am no longer clear as to what exactly the world wants to see happening before they can come to the assistance of the long suffering innocents in Zimbabwe.
I wish we had oil, too!
Reports and pictures of dying mothers are always being circulated on the internet and in newspapers; pictures of incarcerated toddlers are available, accompanied with reports on how a two-year old tot spent months in a jail, with its mother in another cell, in a notorious maximum security prison in Harare.
Countless non-governmental organisations have chronicled the suffering of people, deliberately caused by an illegitimate government bent on meting out revenge for its rejection at the polls.
Indeed, the world has been provided with ample evidence that a genocide is silently being perpetrated in Zimbabwe.
Early this week, Phandu Skelemani, Botswana’s minister of Foreign Affairs, did admit that, indeed, what is happening in Zimbabwe is genocide.
A few days earlier, Graca Machel had complained that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had been dragging its feet for far too long in solving the crisis in Zimbabwe.
“I have been part of those who trusted and waited that our leaders knew what they were doing, that they would find a solution,” she said. “Somehow one has to accept we stood and waited for too long.”
But still, we see no solution in sight. No movement from anywhere except press releases condemning Robert Mugabe.
Having read SADC’s impotance well, Mugabe continues to thumb his nose at the embattled organisation.
I still have to come across any country in the region that benefited from SADC’s existence or a regional country that took orders from SADC and applied them with the urgency of respect.
Amid criticism from its member states and from prominent citizens who are fed up with its ineptitude and who should be praising it, SADC’s beleaguered Secretary General, Tomaz Salom├úo, has hastily arranged yet another extra-ordinary summit in South Africa on Monday to deal with the Zimbabwean issue but unashamedly threatened the region by saying if the talks failed once more, SADC would drop the Zimbabwean issue and hand it over to the African Union.
Apparently, the Secretary General has his muzzle so deep in the feeding trough that he can’t see that the so-called African union is a more embarrassing failure than SADC. At least SADC achieved disaster, what has the AU ever achieved?
Another last chance for SADC to redeem itself? Don’t count on it. How many chances were presented to them and that went unused? How many chances did SADC itself create only to sit back and enjoy tea and biscuits without dealing effectively with the issues that had brought them on the junkets?
Are they going to spend thousands they do not have so that they gather and instruct adversaries to run a ministry together simultaneously?
Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change gave SADC a lot of room.
The MDC was very patient with dictator Mugabe and, indeed, with SADC.
I recall Tsvangirai’s assault, when he was shown on international television with his face grotesquely puffed up after being man-handled by Mugabe’s goons. Among other excuses, that sad battered figure of Tsvangirai should have given the likes of Salomao a little fuel to at least, say something.
Apparently, SADC pays its people to keep quiet. And Salomao excels on this.
How and why did SADC fail to see to it that a settlement “negotiated” under its auspices is implemented?
As the MDC’s position paper correctly points out, the key challenge to the agreement has been its implementation.
“The implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding and the Global Political Agreement required honesty, good faith and goodwill to be displayed by the parties to the agreement.”
And SADC could not enforce that…just that.
As everybody, including SADC, could see, after the signing of the agreement, ZANU PF “acted in a manner that is contrary to the spirit of the agreement and displayed duplicity and bad faith in regard to the implementation of various aspects of the agreement”.
SADC knew about it and saw it but did nothing. These are the same people who wasted millions as they attended a “summit” at which they came up with the so-called “SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections” in 2004, a few months before Zimbabwe’s 2005 elections where mayhem reigned.
I do not think Prega Ramsamy, Salomao’s predecessor (2001-2005), let alone Salomao (2005 to present) even knew, saw or bothered with that document after they all left Mauritius.
I don’t think they knew or cared how many people ended up being killed by Mugabe during that voting exercise. I can almost guarantee that he, Salmoa and his SADC never did or said anything to Mugabe about it.
For years, SADC has insisted that in Zimbabwe, the will of the people should be ignored to please a murderous dictator.
SADC did not succeed in Zimbabwe because it was insisting on reversing an electoral process.
They were trying, and, surprisingly, are still trying to lay the foundation of democracy on deciet. Like Tony Leon said, you cannot use flawed electoral outcomes as the basis for a post-settlement government of national unity.
But SADC can!
I applaud SADC’s intention to drop the Zimbabwean issue from their itinerary. They should have done that a long time ago.
But they should also drop their salaries.
We cannot have these over-paid non-performers choosing what crisis to deal with and which one not to.
We could respect them more if they just disbanded because they are of no use and my heart bleeds to see the big beautiful, expensive building nearing completion and being prepared to be occupied by such a troop of failures.
SADC, after contributing to the deaths and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe through its inaction and blindness, now wants to wash its hands of the Zimbabwe problem. They might as well; they accomplished their mission: thousands were killed and many more died because SADC did not do anything.
We could never have been more unfortunate than being put in the hands of SADC and Thabo Mbeki. It was a double whammy we could not survive and, indeed, we lost thousands because of these two. Their synergy in partiality, indecisiveness and unfairness is unequalled. Their existence nurtures dictatorships.
If anyone were serious about solving the Zimbabwean quagmire, they must start with removing Mbeki. He never mediated anything but always tried to cheat the Zimbabwean rank and file to protect his master. Those nascent dictatorial tendencies and political chicanery inadvertently backed up into his daily presidential routine in South Africa and it cost him his job.
Isn’t he ashamed that South Africans can do to him what Zimbabweans can’t do to his mentor Mugabe? Now he has become an instant has-been and he will not rise from that dump of history where he threw himself because of his admiration for a murderous tyrant. Good riddance!
As for SADC, could they just go away, please.
From the very beginning, SADC failed to enforce its own guidelines on its own members in the whole region.
The fact that member states can indulge in the murder and abuse of SADC citizens while SADC watches and does nothing about it is a terrible indictment against SADC’s continued existence.
SADC must, therefore, carry out their threat of removing Zimbabwe from their itinerary. That could open the doors to the eventual emancipation of Zimbabwe and it would be good riddance, too!
Otherwise, much as we might fear and dislike the idea, it really is time to think and talk about the military option.
Too much frustration is building up.
