I am guttered. The people of Zimbabwe are guttered. The UN’s failure to condemn Mugabe’s continued violation of the people of Zimbabwe’s right to have a meaningful say in the governance of their country was a body blow to the people of Zimbabwe.
The UN has expressed “deep regret” at Muagabe’s failure to hold free and fair run-off elections. SA in a member of UN Security Council, the decision making organ of the world body, opposed a stronger statement calling the election illegitimate. So, after all the mayhem, intimidation and murder Mugabe unleashed on his political opponents and the ordinary people of Zimbabwe what else, Your Excellence, President Tembo Mbeki, did you Mugabe to do to tip the scale from “deep regret” to illegitimate?
Zimbabweans had hoped against hope that the UN would lead in taking a firm stance against Mugabe which others, such as SADC and AU would then follow. Strong diplomatic and economic pressure would then follow and so force the Mugabe regime to end further human rights violations and thus see return to the rule of law in and with it economic recovery Zimbabwe.
A few day ago the former President of South African, Nelson Mandela talked of the “tragic failure of leadership” north of the boarder. The great man had kept his own council against ever increasing pressure for him to speak out of Zimbabwe and the economic and political crisis gripping the whole SADC region because of what Mugabe is doing.
We live in a world in which, when it is time for them to go, most leaders would do so screaming, scratching and kicking. And then after they are finally bundled out, they will not shout up! In Africa we are curse in that most of leaders in fact simply refuse to go and would cheap and rig elections just to extend their rule. Leaders like Robert Mugabe are the extreme case of this group; they have committed serious human rights violation including murder. So leaders like Mandela who is on the opposite extreme who not only stand down, without being hurried along, but also resisted the temptation to becoming a backseat driver are very, very rare indeed.
So why the seemingly contradictory position of respecting Mandela’s silence and at the same time calling on him to speak out? There three reasons: one, there is a “tragic failure of leadership”, not only north of Limpopo River but south as well, within SADC and the whole of Africa, and, when it comes to matters concerning Africa, in the whole world too.
Mugabe and those close to him failed leadership is well established. And right across Zimbabwe society there will be some soul searching for the part we each played in this dictatorship. Mbeki’s failure, on the Zimbabwe crisis at least, is one of omission. He has repeatedly failed to rein in Mugabe when he could and should have done so. The feeble UN is just the latest opportunity for President Mbeki to do just that that has now gone begging.
The UN’s failure to lead would not have been so bad if Zimbabwe could count on SADC or the AU to act decisively. The quality leadership here too differ from that of Mugabe and Mbeki in turns of degree and not form. So Mugabe will, at worst, get tacit recognition of his regime by the regional and continental bodies.
It was rotten luck on the part of Zimbabwe that SA should have happened to be in the UN Security Council at this critical stage in our history. One can only hope without SA the UN would have acted differently this time at least. For its best intention to make human rights and freedom contain in the UN Charter truly universal the world body has largely failed to do so largely because selfish national interests by the five permanent members of the Security Council with veto powers have always been allowed to take precedence over human rights, etc. So there is a failure of leadership at this level too.
The second reason why Mandela had to speak out on the Zimbabwe crisis is, that the consequence of the crisis was a grim human tragedy. Millions of people’s lives in Zimbabwe and the whole region have been turned up side down and thousands of lives lost. Surely one of Africa greatest sons can not be expected to remain silent in the face of such heart breaking suffering and death.
The third reason is his was the voice of the voiceless at the cutting edge of this crisis and a voice of authority. His one sentence condemnation of “tragic failure of leadership” carried more weight than years of some people’s “quite diplomacy!
Zimbabwe will have to pin all their hopes on the G8 and the West to pile political and economic pressure to end Mugabe’s dictatorial rule. On the economic front the Zimbabwe economy is already in a sorry state so it will not take much for it to totally collapse. Zimbabweans themselves, both inside and outside, can too play an active role in this. So far we have not done much because we see ourselves as total helpless!
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