HOT AIR FROM AU OR WILL COMMON SENSE FOR ONCE PREVAIL!

The Pan-African parliament observer team have said the presidential run-off election was not free and fair and therefore there should be a rerun. Mugabe has been in power for 28 years and has yet to hold free and fair elections. The level of violence, intimidation, etc used against his political opponents and critics have got progressively worse with each successive elections. In the past African election observer teams have down played Mugabe’s excesses and reported of the elections as being “largely” free and fair. Not so this time.

The AU has craved the image that the continent is perfectly capable of running its own affairs. Africa is the poorest continent in the world and yet it is also one of the riches in terms of natural resources and economic potential. It used to be the norm to blade white colonial oppression and exploitation for this disparity but with many countries in their third or fourth decade after independence that excuse is frankly wearing very thin. The truth in far is that most countries were economically better off before independence than they are now.

Africa’s problem is one of bad governance; corrupt and undemocratic leaders who once in office have plundered their nation’s wealth and would cheat, rig and, yes, even kill to remain in power. African leaders have grudgingly accepted this but, typically, have resisted outside pressure for reforms claiming they will deal with this themselves. They elected to use peer pressure; African leaders leaning on a fellow African leader who falls out of line. So the AU came up with its guidelines on the conduct of elections, for example, and routinely sends its own Pan African parliament observer team to monitor elections.

The Pan-African parliament observer team have now reported its finds and made its recommendation. The challenge now is to see whether or not the AU will act. The AU has repeatedly failed to act, but this time is own team of observers condemn the election, a very, very rare act of honesty and common sense by any AU organ. So will the African Leaders at the AU summit refuse to welcome Mugabe in their midst or will there be the usual blast of hot air blowing in Sharm el- Sheikh, Egypt!