"Africans a liberate Zimbabwe" Again!

[Westman]

Bob Marley would be stunned to know that Zimbabwe was not really liberated in the 70's. It was only shifted from one set of masters to another.

In a classic reworking of the Animal Farm, Mugabe became the head pig who stood on his hind leges and was just as ruthless as the former masters. Now he gets removed from office. Let's hope for real democracy with social and economic reforms for Zimbabwe (Rhodesia).

[Hortical]

No so fast....no liberation yet! The official election results have not been declared, and I would be surprised if there is no bloodshed, and Mugabe does not try to steal the election. A long way to go....

[Willi]

Mugabe and Tsvangirai one and the same

Thursday, April 03, 2008


Dear Editor,
I am a former Zimbabwean political activist now exiled in Canada. After reading the Zimbabwe section of Keeble McFarlane's article of March 29, "A tale of two elections", I was left with the same indignant feeling that foreign analysts tend to tell just one half of the truth. Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe, has also benefited from weak, dictatorial leadership on the part of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

MDC leader and presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, is Robert Mugabe in democratic disguise. In 2005, he vetoed a crucial decision by the governing council of his party to participate in Zimbabwe's senatorial elections, causing the party to split in half. He has since failed to reunite the party, and in this election has refused to join hands with other Opposition forces.
Mugabe, currently at his weakest, may still benefit from a divided Opposition. Tsvangirai will need a cosmic miracle to win the election. Either way, things will change after the election and they'll stay the same.
Following scattered incursions by apartheid South Africa-sponsored rebels in southern Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, Mugabe unleashed his ruthless, North Korea-trained 5th Brigade military unit. The unit exterminated 20,000 innocent villagers. Mass disappearances, beatings, gang rapes abounded. Hundreds were burned alive. Some victims were forced to dig their own graves, and before being executed some were forced to sing songs praising Mugabe.

Tsvangirai is complicit in Mugabe's genocidal rule. He was a fully subscribed member of Mugabe's Zanu PF party then. He even held the rank of "political commissar". He never spoke out. As recently as 2004, he confirmed that Mugabe was his hero (The Independent, UK, June 20, 2004).
The international community neither intervened nor chastised Mugabe. In 1984 Scotland's Edinburgh University awarded Mugabe an honorary doctorate of law degree. In 1986 the University of Massachusetts awarded Mugabe the same honorary degree. Michigan State University honoured Mugabe in 1990. In 1994, the dictator became the Knight Commander of the Order of Bath, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Zimbabwe's genocide grabbed global headlines only after the post-1999 killings, which claimed 300 lives from both MDC and Zanu PF. But now these killings included about a dozen white Zimbabweans. The dictator had also started repossessing white-owned farms to give to landless black peasants.
The international community is justified in condemning and isolating Mugabe, but cuddling Tsvangirai is acting complicit in his dictatorial style of leadership. In 2005, his veto of a majority vote in the MDC National Council supporting participation in Zimbabwe's senate elections split the party.
Recently, MDC youth reportedly attempted to murder the party's director of security at the party's headquarters in Harare. Tsvangirai took no action. In July 2006, politically appointed thugs brutalised MDC MP, Trudy Stevenson, with whom I worked briefly in the 1990s, and left her for dead. She identified her attackers as Tsvangirai supporters.
Tsvangirai represents a false beginning for Zimbabwe, and Mugabe represents the last detour toward Zimbabwe's final descent into hell.

Obert Madondo
Toronto, Canada
ronrich22@yahoo.ca

[Islandman]

It seems difficult for him to steal it by saying he won this time because so many of the results are posted publicly. I would more expect him to just say that he is not giving up power and the army is still loyal to him so hug up dat.

It still don't know what went wrong with this guy. Nobody can deny that he helped fight for the cause in the 60s and 70s, yet today he is comfortable with such atrocities against his people. Power is a potent drug indeed.

[HL]

Bottom line is that the African MUST NOT give away their BIRTH RIGHT.

What BIRTH RIGHT? you ask?

The LAND.

"Land is power...without it life has no worth!!!".

[Islandman]

They must also ensure that the farm land is ultimately put in the hands of people who have a clue about farming, and not merely transfered from white farmers who did not pay for it, to black political thugs in Harare who have never held a fork in thier hands other than the one they eat dinner with.

[Assasin]

I met Kit Masire(sp) former leader of Botwswana in the 1980s and he told me he told a group of us he would give up all his diamond in his country for education.

I see they have done well even though Aids hit them real hard but it is one of the progressive countries in Africa, so you are partially right, Land and Education is key.

[Islandman]

They are the ONLY African country I can identify that has had a sustained period of economic and political stability post-independence. They are by far the exception and not the rule and the question we must ask ourselves is WHY?

The main difference I see is they did not have one of these strongman type leaders post-independence, who are usually required when fighting a revolutionary war or struggle but are typically unsuited for political office because they don't deal with opposition well and ultimately surround themselves with yesmen and cronies.

This is where Nelson Mandela was so unique, he started planning and preparing for political office even before the struggle was finished, and was as good a political leader as he was leading a freedom fighter movement. South Africa so far seems as if they will escape the total disaster that has happened elsewhere on the continent.

[MdmeX]

They must also ensure that the farm land is ultimately put in the hands of people who have a clue about farming, and not merely transfered from white farmers who did not pay for it, to black political thugs in Harare who have never held a fork in thier hands other than the one they eat dinner with.

...and who have no intention of holding a fork, unless it's the one going to the mouth!

..at least the white farmers were feeding the populace, and the country could export food. Now the lands sit IDLE, is a good thing Land can't ROT!

[Assasin]

and Kit Masire was bent on education.

He came to Jamaica and toured many educational instutions, amongst them HEART Runaway Bay Academy and said these instutions are what he wanted for his country. This included UWI.

The man was on a mission unlike so many other leaders in Africa.

[Baddaz]

this is where i take issue... at least white farmers were feeding the populace... to hell with them... they could be feed the continent...

the land was not theirs and it must be repossessed...

i see the europeans strategy working... stall, delay, misinform and impose sanctions... create unrest among the people with the economic hardship resulting from the sanctions... get the people to turn against mugabe... then they will have their way and keep the land...

[Mosiah]

Quett Masire - didn't know he visited Jamaica.

[Islandman]

So Baddaz, I guess you do not find any fault in Mugabe in any of this disaster?

Who printed the money that caused the 100,000% inflation? Who gave the land to people who can't farm and hence created food shortages?

As I have said before many,many times on this forum...the land reform was always necesary. However that does not mean it was done correctly or fairly.

In Jamaica there were many reforms that were necessary in 1972 when Manley won power. Some were done well, most were not and we saw the results.

[Mosiah]

They are the ONLY African country I can identify that has had a sustained period of economic and political stability post-independence. They are by far the exception and not the rule and the question we must ask ourselves is WHY?

Let's not be naive about it. Look at the Congo (Zaire, or whatever it's now called). It was direct interference (or non-interference!) that led to its instability when Patrice Lumumba was President. It has not recovered since. If little Belgium could do all that (with the help of the CIA), imagine what other colonial masters and powers do in some of these countries. And that is not to absolve our own African leaders!

[Assasin]

yeah he did about 1987-1988. He personally told us he had a son that was the "dead stamp" of Ewon Hewitt of Irie FM sports.

Mr Hewitt was my soccer coach at the time and was with our group meeting Mr. Masire.