Posts Tagged ‘zimbabwe’
Zimbabwe shackled
More than a week after Zimbabwe’s latest presidential elections, President Robert Mugabe’s administration has yet to release the results. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has appealed to the High Court, the president of neighboring democracy South Africa and the U.N. to pressure the president to make an announcement.
Word on the street seems to be that Mugabe had 43% of votes — not enough to win a majority — and that a runoff between the him and Tsvangirai, with 47% of votes, may be necessary. Meanwhile, the country sits on edge as fears of violence breaking out grows by the day. Riot police and water cannons appeared in Harare last weekend, reported the Washington Post.
Every bit of this week’s news reads as if it were recycled from reports of the legislative and presidential elections in 2000 and 2002.
Take this example of Mugabe’s enduring association of capitalism with colonialism.
“President Robert Mugabe launched a make-or-break election campaign Friday by describing a controversial new law allowing seizure of white-owned farmland without compensation as a ‘victory over colonialism.’” — Agence France-Presse, April 7, 2000.
“… President Robert Mugabe on Monday called on veterans of the nation’s fight for independence in the 1970s to ‘safeguard’ the land seized from ‘the former colonizers,’ …” — New York Times, April 8, 2008.
The resemblance is downright uncanny, though few would be surprised. After all, Mugabe has been in power for nearly three decades, and he hasn’t really changed his spots.
In The Shackled Continent, Economist writer Robert Guest places the blame on what he calls “predatory, incompetent governments” as being responsible for Africa’s impoverished state. Though democratic polls are now commonplace on the continent, bad economic policies, corruption, and an atmosphere of terror has scared off native entrepreneurs and overseas investors alike. Most Africans — South Africans a notable exception of recent — cannot vote their leaders peacefully out of the office.
Guest used the term “vampire” states. Last week, supporters of the opposition MDC waved copies of South Africa’s Sunday Times, on which was bannered “Save Us From This Vampire!”
Back in 2000, Mugabe’s war veterans whipped and raped farm workers who did not seem enthusiastic about ZANU. Card-carrying members of the party stood near voters, metal bars in hand, as they stalked the voters queues in 2000. In 2007, dozens of Tsvangirai’s followers were beaten, and Mugabe has gone so far as to jail journalists from Western countries reporting on the elections. To wit:
“Political violence is rising in Zimbabwe despite growing international pressure on President Robert Mugabe to rein in militant supporters spearheading his re-election campaign, human rights groups said on Thursday.” — Reuters, Jan. 17, 2002.
“A top ruling party official, Didymus Mutasa, said party officials were planning to “purge” the electoral commission of alleged opposition supporters…” — The Washington Post, April 5, 2008.
In the end, Mugabe has proved that African elections aren’t truly free or fair. At age 84, he continues to rule his country like his revolutionary army, dictating prices and printing money to pay off the month’s debts — in perhaps the most ridiculous fact printed this week, the New York Times reported that Mugabe, having jailed Times journalist Barry Bearak, released him on bond of 300 million Zim dollars, or $10,000 at official exchange rates. The black market rate is a mere $7.
Africa has moved little beyond the sick land that Guest examined more than three years ago. South Africa and other nations continue to tacitly approve Mugabe’s actions by not doing much to disapprove. So what about the light at the end of the tunnel?
Guest espouses the notion of baby steps in the right direction. For Zimbabwe, hopefully, that translates to Mugabe’s finally releasing the results of the election.
Zimbabwe Election Day
The world holds its breath as Zimbabwe’s presidential and parliamentary election day approaches.
March 29 will pit 83-year-old President Robert Mugabe, in power since 1980 and leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), against leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – and possibly others.
No one wants to see the economically-hobbling Zimbabwe follow in the footsteps of Kenya – a country that only a couple months ago stood as one of the most stable in Africa. Read the rest of this entry »
