Zimbabwe: Forget the president, let Cosatu act as mediator

President Thabo Mbeki is right. There is no crisis in Zimbabwe.

Next to hyperinflation, mass starvation, brutalisation of the population, Gukurahundi, 80% unemployment and any number of other plagues Mugabe has visited on the people of Zimbabwe, why would failing to release the presidential election results constitute a crisis?

Indeed it would seem mere footling next to other abominations carried on by Zanu-PF — all the while ignored or in certain instances underpinned by the support being received from South Africa and other members of SADC. The fact that the rape of Zimbabwe has occasioned destabilisation of the entire region and cost this country billions and billions of rands seems to be lost on the government.

The cost of medical treatment, feeding, housing, clothing and otherwise supporting the exiles cannot be measured in millions. On top of that, factor in how many jobs are being taken up by cheaper labour, as well as the enormous increase in crime that the Zimbabweans bring to South Africa. Then round it off by estimating the amount of investment lost by those who look at the instability of Southern Africa, the example of Zimbabwe and the pathetic response of South Africa and other countries in the region to Mugabe and his henchmen.

Over the weekend, SADC had the opportunity to call an end to the farce that was the Zimbabwean election — to demand the result and that Mugabe resign and hand over the reigns to the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai. Instead, it elected to call for the results of the presidential election and requested parties to accept the outcome whatever it is.

If Tsvangirai accepts anything short of his presidency, then he gets what he deserves. There can never be a run-off in a country where Mugabe is in power — no international observers, no independent media, war veterans who weren’t even born at the time of the war running rampant, police and military intimidation of voters, and on and on; where the only independent observers are the gutless wonders from this region who declared the parliamentary vote free and fair.

If the MDC achieved a majority under the conditions I described above, then the only person who voted for Mugabe was his cousin from Bulawayo. It must have been the landslide of the century for Bob’s your tyrant to concede defeat. Of course the fact that the ZEC refuses to release the presidential results confirms who controls the ZEC.

A run-off? You must be taking the piss.

Even the fact that Mugabe snubbed the weekend crisis summit — called to solve the problems in his country — did not deter our president from going to see this thug in his own backyard, where the right response to his absence would have been to tell him to start packing because it’s time to sod off.

Instead we are first informed by our president that there is no crisis in Zim, followed by a pathetic call from SADC to release the results. I wouldn’t touch those results with a barge pole, even if I had a barge pole in the first place. The only thing we can accept is that Mugabe is a rogue and we have allowed him to butcher his people for far too long.

Contrast this with Cosatu’s single-minded approach to Zimbabwe.

Where the ruling party has been soft on Zim, its alliance partner has been scathing. It has repeatedly called for proper free and fair elections and slammed the conduct of the Zimbabwean government over and over again — not for them the softly-softly-catchee-butcher approach. This is the way South Africa should have dealt with it as soon as Bob went off the rails.

If this country is to act as mediator in any way, then allow Cosatu, a trade-union federation which has demonstrated its concern at the plight of the Zimbabwean people, to go in there and, duly mandated by its own courage, tell Bob’s your tyrant where to get off.

This will not only retrieve our position in the eyes of the world, achieve the end of the butcher and release billions in aid to Zimbabwe, but also allow South Africa some credit while discharging it of the burden of the exiles.

It’s the least that we can do.