Dear Editor,
I refer to your editorial captioned “Zimbabwe so far” (08.04.09). The tidal waves that hit Mugabe recently in the March elections are a clear indication of how he usurped power and regarded the country as synonymous with his name. It is an established fact that the ailing leader of Zimbabwe has been a disaster from the beginning. He was good as a revolutionary leader, in an independent nation he was and has been a disaster. This is truly surprisingly to all those who have held him in high esteem, but such assertions beg to be justified. The question we are all asking is: Where are the Zimbabwe election votes? Mugabe’s party is calling for a recount even before the official results are announced, putting the cart before the horse? The man has strong justification why he should not go at all costs. Where did he go wrong in his 28 years rule?
During the first six years after independence (1981 to 1987), Mugabe unleashed the Korean trained fifth brigade that killed close to 20 000 people, most of them civilians in the regions known to support the then main opposition, ZAPU led by Joshua Nkomo, later to become vice president 1987 -1999. This was a self inflicted genocide marking the beginning of many other catastrophes at the hands of Mugabe.
Next was the action of War Veterans who in 2000, after the humiliating defeat in the referendum, where the Trade Union, then led by Morgan Tsvangirai won the vote against, invaded ‘white owned farms’. Mugabe called this invasion, ‘black empowerment’, where Blacks were reclaiming what was theirs, the land. Apparently beneficiaries turned out to be his party members and ministers who ended up getting more than one farm. The process of this land reclamation was accompanied by the looting of farm implements and killing of hundreds of people. This marked the free-fall of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown; from being the bread basket of Africa to one with a battered economy.
In May 2005, exactly one month after the opposition MDC won a substantial number of seats in the parliamentary elections, Mugabe introduced Operation Restore Order (Murambatsvina), leaving an estimated 700 000 people in cities homeless or having lost their livelihoods, drastically increasing unemployment. This exercise led to the wrecking of the informal sector and has had detrimental effects on the economy. Mugabe has masterminded the killings of people who opposed his heavy handedness. Four of his ministers are on record as having separately died in mysterious road accidents, of a similar nature. The leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai and civic leaders were physically attacked and brutally tortured on March 13, 2006. In 2007, Nelson Chamisa of the MDC was attacked at Harare International Airport, and to this day, justice is yet to be done. That was the reward for forming and belonging to a party that opposes Mugabe’s rule. There are several people who ‘disappeared’ at the instruction of Mugabe and nothing has been heard of them. Mugabe has used the army and police to quell any “civic unrest”.
Suffice to say, Mugabe has presided over one of the worst economies so far this century. Zimbabwe’s inflation, the highest in the world, currently at 164 900, 3% and unemployment is over 80%! In the midst of the anxiety for the presidential elections, the Reserve Bank introduced Z$ 25 million and Z$50 million bills!! A loaf of bread costs $25 million and a daily copy of any newspaper costs Z$4 million!! This is just but a tip of the iceberg of Zimbabwe’s one-man-induced suffering and the demise of the once prosperous agro-based economy of Southern Africa. The humanitarian and economic consequences of the last ten years will take several years before the people and society as a whole can recover.
One is made to believe that Mugabe wants to stay in power “until death do us part” for the obvious reason. With all the people who died at his hands in the twenty eight years he has ruled Zimbabwe, it is in the frame of justice that Mugabe should stand trial for all the gross human abuses, tortures and killings inflicted at his instruction. His fears thus are his justification for holding the country at ransom.
He can be equated to the likes of Hitler, Marcos, Botha, Bokassa, Mengisthu and Saddam. The impasse of the presidential elections results that have not been released twelve days after the election calls for all sane and sundry to raise suspicion as to why that long? The Electoral Commission’s impartiality is doubtful since the ruling party is already calling for a run off or a rerun of the presidential elections, even before the official results are released. In choosing to release the results of the parliamentary elections and withholding the presidential results, your editorial is right that “he obviously seeks to make a distinction between his party’s defeat and his personal defeat”. His defeat came as a surprise to him, thus he is buying time and planning massive violence. The question still remains; Where are the election results?
Mugabe is suppressing the release of the presidential results in anticipation of civil strife, to allow him to declare a state of emergency and rule by decree for as long as he wants. Since the public has not reacted violently, Mugabe has thus unleashed war veterans to invade “white” farms. Violence instigated by the government forces is trickling slowly as noted by Tendai Biti, the Secretary General of the Movement for Democratic Change who says “I call to my brothers and sisters across the continent – don’t wait for dead bodies in the streets of Harare. There is a constitutional and legal crisis in Zimbabwe”.
Surely, the international community must react to the situation in Zimbabwe. Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ruling ANC in South Africa has called for an immediate release of the results, in sharp contrast to the quite diplomacy of the president, Thabo Mbeki. African leaders at the emergency summit this coming Saturday must force Mugabe to stand down and allow for the rebuilding of the country. The United Nations, African Union and SADC should assist in promoting real internal dialogue among Zimbabwe’s various constituencies and dialogue in the international community, with the view to working out modalities of returning Zimbabwe to the international fold. The international community should encourage the prosecution of all those who orchestrated any catastrophe during Mugabe’s reign and those who may have caused criminal negligence leading to the deaths of people, if confirmed by an independent international inquest.
Yours faithfully,
Clyde Bonqabutho
Chakupeta (one of three Zimbabweans
working in Guyana)
