165,000% inflation, 80% unemployment and a now brutally silenced cry for change does nothing to stop the lunacy that is the presidency/dictatorship of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the Presidential run-off election scheduled for this coming weekend because government back militia gangs continue to terrorise and kill his supporters. He sits in internal exile in the Dutch Embassy after seeking refuge there following his almost daily arrests and his key campaign leader sits in jail charged with treason and threatened with death. He has been given assurances that he will be given safe passage because his presence in that embassy is an embarrassment to Mugabe and even he won’t violate the sanctity of an international embassy.
Most news is embargoed as major news outlets are banned from reporting in Zimbabwe. In Time magazine this week Mugabe threatened to ignore the outcome of this week’s elections if he lost and his army has established a crude form of martial law in his name.
South Africa’s ANC issued its first statement on the issue saying it was “dismayed” by the entire incident. Way to go Thabo! That’s really telling him off after being his tea cozy for the last four years. One would think you were Tony Blair to his George Bush the way you have toed his party line.
Now South Africa, the Rainbow Nation, is trying to stem a rising tide of refugees from Zimbabwe and Botswana as thousands flee violence and economic disaster for the hope of finding work and raising their families. The problem is the situation is so bad for RSA workers that they now routinely set upon the refugees out of a xenophobic fear in the already poverty stricken Johannesburg Townships of Alexandra and Soweto that these new people will work for even less and take their jobs.
Meanwhile Nelson Mandela celebrates his 90th birthday this weekend in London’s Hyde Park with a star-studded concert in his honour. The all-star cast and friends include: Amy Winehouse, Shirley Bassey, former US President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, actors Robert De Niro, Will Smith and Forest Whitaker, US television host Oprah Winfrey and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, the sub-continent seems set to do all it can to spoil the celebration.
It is amazing to see this kind of political firepower and star power assembled in one city for a truly great man. The problem is, as much as we all love, honour and respect Nelson Mandela for his achievements, this group should right now be in one city, Harare, convincing Mugabe it is time to go away and let his nation begin healing.
We’ve watched Darfur slip away, how can we let another country slip this far so quickly? When the opposition outnumbers the followers of a desperate despot, how long before genocide strikes here as well?
Enjoy the party folks.
