In an address to the UN General Assembly Mugabe blames "illegal and debilitating" sanctions for widespread poverty in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's life expectancy – the best qualitative and quantitative litmus test on human life - has plunged from 65 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2005. The root cause of this plunge is years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by the Mugabe regime. The economic collapse started soon after independence and from 2000 to 2008 it took an alarming nose dive following the violent farm invasions which saw agricultural sector collapse.
Mugabe has become a master at finding scapegoats for his failures. He can blame the targeted sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down all he likes; we all know that is not true.
It is clear that UN Millennium Development Goals are NOT going to be met because the UN sought to address the economic needs without addressing the underlying political problems head on. German Chancellor Angela Merkel put her finger on the political issue when she said, “support for good governance is as important as aid itself."
Zimbabweans have been stuck with corrupt and repressive regime that has thrown them into abject poverty and denied them human dignity and hope. In the 2008 election over 500 Zimbabweans were murdered and over 20 000 in the mid 1980s to create Zimbabwe’s de facto one-party state. Zimbabweans have never had a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Is Robert Mugabe going to blame Western for the Zimbabwe’s failure to delivery the basic and fundamental rights as pronounced in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights including the right to life!?
The Western sanctions were an attempt to force Mugabe to stop the serious human rights violations. The sanctions must be tightened, so far they have had a minimum effect on the regime. None of the MDG will ever be achieved as long as mismanagement and corruption remain rampant and the only way to end these is by having good governance.
3 comments:
@Johann Braunstein
Tsvangirai is "building a sand castle in the tidal zone with his back to the sea," you said. What a precise description of the situation prevailing in Zimbabwe!
Without meaningful political change, the restoration of the rule of law, free and fair elections, freedom of expression, respect of individual rights including property rights and right to life, an end to excessive presidential powers, end to lawlessness by the State Security Organs, etc – in short meaningful democratic change – there will be no meaningful and lasting economic and political change in Zimbabwe.
Kwame Nkrumah counselled the oppressed of Africa to seek first the political kingdom, after which all other things would be added unto them. Tsvangirai and his friends named their party movement for DEMOCRATIC change not movement for ECONOMIC change for exactly the same reason. It is amazing how quickly Tsvangirai has changed. He is now talking of “tangible economic changes” and has forgotten the none existent political changes.
The economic changes Zimbabwe has enjoyed are first of all totally at the mercy of the Mugabe’s whim. The single most important reason for the end of the country’s hyper inflation rate and financial stability was the scrapping of the Z$ and decommissioning of Gono’s money printing press. Mugabe has stubbornly retained Gono as the governor of the Reserve Bank and the printing press can be up and running in a few days – it was only mothball. Mugabe has already said he would like to see the return of the Z$ and it is his decision alone that counts – he is a dictator!
Secondly if there had been real democratic change in Zimbabwe, the farm invasions had stopped, transparency in the mining and sell of diamonds, etc the country would be enjoying 20% plus growth rate not a misery 7%.
Instead of pushing Mugabe for meaningful democratic change Tsvangirai has settled for the easier option of appeasing Mugabe. It is certainly easier to build a sand castle on the tidal zone than a solid one of rock on the top of the cliff. It is not the madness of the tide that concerns me but the madness of the one building the sand castle who is inviting others to live in it!
@ John 1 S
"I fail to see how Tsvangirai could affect any change on the levels of violence seeing that mugabe/zanu control the guns," you say. I think most people will agree with you there. Certainly, this is the BIG ISSUE in Zimbabwe and there are no ease solutions. Pretending that the problem is not there and let the dictator and his military junta do as they please to appease them, which is what Tsvangirai has done, is the EASIEST way out. Of course this has made a bad situation worse. What is infuriating here is that Tsvangirai has said again and again that the situation was better and has been spending resources accordingly – all wasted of course.
What has made this situation even harder to swallow is that Tsvangirai had many opportunities to take on the dictatorship and win but failed to do so. For example after the sham run-off election in 2008; Mugabe and his junta were on the hook because the whole world would not accept them as legitimate leaders of Zimbabwe. It was Tsvangirai who got them off the hook by signing the GPA – the one-sided agreement!
Any Zimbabweans who defy the dictatorship in the forthcoming elections are certain to be punished. For what? So that Tsvangirai can continue appeasing the dictator and his thugs? That will certainly be foolish!
@Johann Braunstein
What you say about Mugabe and his thugs is true but in this situation one is forced to take sides or at least morons like Fungayi believe that if you are critical of Mugabe you must be a Tsvangirai supporter. They will never understanding that one can be critical of a murderous dictator without being a supporter of an idiot like Tsvangirai. My deepest regret is that many Zimbabweans have yet to see Tsvangirai for the idiot he is. Still, Tsvangirai or no Tsvangirai, I believe Mugabe and his reign of terror is doomed.
The Gukurahundi murders have been declared genocide and so all those involved can be arrested and treated regardless how long it takes to hunt them down. I believe people like Fungayi were involved in the murder, directly or indirectly. Fungayi will not be able to travel in the Eurostar, he will soon go into hiding.
@ La Quebecoise
To suggest that Tsvangirai was forced, "hamstrung", by SADC into joining the GNU is not correct. It implies that SADC were in a position to do SOMETHING about it if Tsvangirai had said no. The truth is there was absolutely nothing SADC would have done.
Mugabe made it impossible for Tsvangirai to sign the GPA by making outrageous demands. Tsvangirai tried to hold out hoping SADC would pressure the dictator to be reasonable. Mugabe called SADC and more importantly Tsvangirai's bluff. SADC is too feeble to do anything. As for Tsvangirai, you are too kind to say "he is nothing wonderful", the truth is the man is fit for herding goats - not more than ten or he will lose them!
The really tragedy in Zimbabwe is all of our politicians are in politics for the chance to loot the public. How else can one explain why Zanu PF politicians have continued to follow a murderous dictator and MDC politicians to follow an idiot!
@ Dora Mukute
“Mukori, i have always maintained that you are an askari, God have mercy on you. Your spirited defence of white capital interst is unrelenting, quite unparalled, beating the MDC and Tsangirayi, the alfa and omega of selling out, “ you write.
We all know you support Mugabe and his junta or shall I say you are an integral part of the repressive regime. To the regime the ordinary Zimbabweans have no voice, no rights and their very lives are for the regime to do with as it pleases. So the regime does not acknowledge their tragic suffering and the tens of thousands of innocent Zimbabwe the regime has murdered in its three decades in power. Ordinary Zimbabweans do not register on the regime’s radar just as they did not register on the white colonial regimes before it. WELL, every Zimbabwean, white and black, rich and poor, educated and not educated, etc.; they areal clearly visible on my radar.
Mugabe and his thugs have been looting the country’s resources, notably the farms. The farms were to be distributed to the landless blacks but since the regime does not “see” them, the dictator and his thugs have taken the farms for themselves. I have spoken against this because this was the last big push to send the national economy into economic melt down forcing millions of our people into abject poverty. But since the regime does not “see” these people; it has stubbornly refused to see what I am talking about. I have also condemned the lawlessness and brutality of the farm invasion – the regime can “see” white people and dismissed the condemnation as “spirited defence of white capital interest”. Please yourself.
Let me tell you here and now; it is totally acceptable that Zimbabweans should be treated as if they are the scam of the earth, the way the white colonialists treated us. Mugabe and his thugs were the heroes to end white oppression but that does not give them the right to treat the rest of us as scam! If Mugabe and his thugs think they will be allowed to keep the loot and continue to hold the nation to ransom, they are wrong. If you think all the innocent Zimbabweans you and the regime have murdered will be forgotten you are very mistaken; many thugs will hang for this.
Why the West keep calling these targeted sanctions, I will never know!
The sanctions were supposed to stop Mugabe and 200 of his cronies travelling to the West to do their shopping but how often has Mugabe been to the US and Europe this year alone? And how many of his cronies were there with him? As for the family of friends of those on the sanctions list; they have not only been back and forth but many of them now live in West!
It is nonsense that a ruthless dictatorship like the one Mugabe is running depends on a mere 200 individuals.
Whilst the West imposed the sanctions ten years ago the brutal repression has been going on since 1980. Indeed Mugabe committed most of his political murders in the mid 1980s allowing him to establish his de facto one-party dictatorship. Whilst the sanctions are hardly hurting the ordinary people the brutal repression has caused them unimaginable misery.
The sanctions are hardly hurting Mugabe and his cronies either; they missed the target by a mile! Mugabe has used the sanctions as the excuse for the country’s economic woos.
The West must now use one of those snapper rifle for the targeted the sanctions and extend the sanctions list beyond the pin point inner circle - bigger target and better focus. The idea is to hurt the dictator and his thugs and end the suffering of the ordinary Zimbabweans and not let this drag on for another decade!
66666
In this case, Sir Richard Branson represents the ugly face of capitalism!
It is interesting to note Sir Branson made this call in South Africa. Some one present should have asked him if he would have made a similar call to invest in apartheid ruled South Africa. The investment would have helped prop up the oppressive and racists white regime just as much as investing in Zimbabwe will help prop up a repressive and corrupt black regime. Two years ago the regime has terrorised and raped millions of Zimbabweans and had over 500 murdered for daring to exercise their democratic right to a free vote for Christ sake!
Has it ever occurred to Sir Branson that the victims of Mugabe’s brutal oppression are dying for the right just to earn bread, a roof over their heads and the right to treated with basic dignity? Of course he does not give a damn about all that; all he cares about is the millions he will make.
999
Mugabe and his junta crossed the Rubicon a long time for him to consider niceties such as giving up power “gracefully”. He has other to die in office or taken from there to the gallows! I certainly hope it is the latter and soon!
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