South Africa and China key to Zimbabwean outcome

Gordon Brown has styled the Zimbabwean government as a “criminal cabal“, demanded that it accept international monitors and called for sanctions if President Robert Mugabe is not removed after the run-off.

I could go on listing those who now condemn the president and his party, or simply refer you to Google or any other search engines carrying news on the forthcoming presidential run-off. It pretty much covers the planet with even African leaders starting to come out in numbers. I would however make mention of Botswana who have led the way in expecting a fellow African state to behave in a manner that is acceptable to global civilisation.

It seems that there are many lessons South Africa can learn from Botswana, one of the few success stories in Africa.

What will be vital in the coming days is for African leaders to impress upon South Africa that as a regional leader, they expect it to set the standards and not, as it has done up to now, lower the tone of the debate. Catching the ball instead of deflecting it behind for a corner that puts our goals in danger once again.

As you will see from the article in the Times of London above, punitive sanctions aimed primarily at the Zimbabwean government, as opposed to the people, are being contemplated. This will invariably add a further block of disenchanted Zimbabweans, currently among the haves, to the have-nots.

The tricky part of the equation will be where the sanctions require South Africa’s participation. As we have seen in the past, regardless of the plight of the poorer Zimbabwe communities, the government has refused to act. When the call comes to pull the plug on the electricity as contemplated in those measures, South Africa will use the suffering of the masses, which it has ignored up to now, to refrain from implementing that sanction. If I may just point out, the vast majority of Zimbabweans are not the beneficiaries who are going to suffer, but rather the elite and organs of (destruction?) State.

In order to close Zimbabwe down and squeeze the government into accepting the will of the people of Zimbabwe, it is going to require South Africa and Zimbabwe’s other border states to act. This will not only force Mugabe to face his accusers instead of palming them off to Africa, it will also make those elite who become have-nots reconsider the plight of their starving brothers.

In this regard I would just answer a couple of questions put to me by my readers:

How do I know that the vast majority don’t support Mugabe?
Simply put: Why would a popular president close down any media but his own, murder and detain his opposition, ban rallies, refuse international monitors, ban independent electoral counting, refuse to accept the results if it goes against him, turn loose war veterans, police and soldiers on his population, force state employees to vote in front of his thugs and about two hundred million other reasons, but other than that I would say it seems to be a close run thing.

Would armies blocking Zimbabweans constitute a lack of Ubuntu? (This normally asked by people who support the ruling elite).
No, allowing an elitist group to massacre and brutalise the population removes the jurisdiction of the court on Ubuntu and replaces it with a court of higher jurisdiction. It’s based in the Hague and hopefully while there, will afford those who are troubled by this question to pose it as part of their defence on charges of crimes against humanity.

Perhaps this will teach the haves that even the have-nots are brothers as well. Maybe even get people who watch their black brothers and sisters dying before they reach 38 to have an ounce of compassion and to look out for people other than themselves.

Moving abroad, the key to all of this is also going to rest with China. As long as the Zimbabwean regime believes that it has a veto in the UN security council as well as aid which can somehow be brought in to prop up the elite, it will fight on. Don’t lose sight of the fact that once Zimbabwe is open to the world again, people are going to be shocked at just how bad the murder and brutality has been.

At the end of World War II the Nazis did a lot of posturing because they knew that once the world caught sight of their “work” the proverbial was going to hit the fan. While Zimbabwe is going to be on a much smaller scale it will still be the largest crime against humanity of this century. The elite are well aware of that and are jockeying for position while there is something, anything, worth fighting for.

One thing is for certain, if Zimbabwe does achieve liberation from this reign of terror, you will be very hard pressed to find anyone who supported Mugabe.

Particularly after the bodies come pouring out of the closet.