GRACA MACHEL MANDELA TELL THE BRITISH TO SHUT UP - SHE HAS HERSELF TANGLED UP IN HER KNICKERS!

Graca Machel Mandela tells the British to shut up and stop interfering in Zimbabwe and Africa’s affairs.

Graca Machel Mandela in high regard because she, unlike some of the other first ladies in Africa, she was not pompous. She has always struck me as a simple woman who concerned herself with the simple issues of bread and salt and stayed well clear of the more complex issues. Sadly this time she has strayed way outside her boundary and has got herself tangled up in her knickers!

Zimbabwe and Britain have enjoyed a truly wonderful relationship, one of equals, for the first ten to fifteen years of Zimbabwe’s independence. The British heaped honours on Mugabe and even had him knighted. Unlike other past colonial rulers Britain has kept close ties with its former colonies through the British Commonwealth of Nations. Other countries like Mozambique, although not former British colonies, have opted to join the club. It was through they interaction in the Commonwealth that tensions between Zimbabwe and Britain arose.

The issue of human rights and good governance was something Mugabe simple ignored in his single minded pursuit of power. In the mid 1980s he sent his North Korean trained Fifth Bridge to crash pockets of dissidents loyal to his main political challenger Joshua Nkomo in which 20 000 lives, mostly civilians, were killed. Mrs Mandela, the British then said nothing.

Ironically it was at the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government meeting in Zimbabwe that the club agreed on human rights and good governance rules for all club members in the Harare Declaration. When Mugabe continued to flout these rules – the Zimbabwe economy was suffering because of his mismanagement and growing corruption, Mugabe became increasingly repressive as the only way to stay in power – and so Zimbabwe was kicked out of the Commonwealth. Mugabe hit back and accused Britain of acting like “Big Brother” and Harare’s anti-British rhetoric went into overdrive.

By the year 2000 the Zimbabwe economy was down on its knees and Mugabe needed something to give his ever demanding but wasteful cronies and so he turn to white owned farms. He knows that his land programme has been a total failure but instead of admitting it he sort for a scapegoat – blame it on the British and the West.

For a motherly figure like Graca Mandela, I had hoped that she would be moved by the tragic suffering of the millions ordinary Zimbabweans. And would have told the Zimbabwean dictator: “Yes what you are doing in the violent invasion of white farms is hurting the whites and thus indirectly the British but it is hurting and killing ordinary Zimbabwe too!” Just admitting that Zimbabwe is a “failed state” is not enough!

"The more the British shout, the worse the situation will be in terms of relationship with Zimbabwe” said Graca Mandela.

Whilst it is true that there are countless occasions when Mugabe and his cronies have gone “fishing” for the British’s reaction and the later have foolish obliged. Still Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems can not be blamed on the British but on Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party.

Let SADC deal with Mugabe, Mrs Mandela advise!? Well that is rich! SADC has been “dealing” with Mugabe for all years; what have they achieved? Nothing!

“I think sometimes the Brits regard us as being rather naïve in the MDC” said Eddie Cross. The truth is MDC people are indeed very NAÏVE, especially the party’s leader. In the last ten years Zimbabwe had a number of chances to end Mugabe’s dictatorship if only MDC had not been so naïve and stupid.

Mrs Graca Mandela should not have commented on matters she clearly does not understand, she has disgraced herself! Madam, we are talking about the tragic suffering and lives of millions of Zimbabweans, if all you can think of is giving more excuses for what Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe then do us a favour and shut up!