Monday, June 16, 2008

The Harare Basket

African politicians are so adept in ignoring human rights abuses perpetrated against their own citizens. Having skillfully mastered terms like sovereignity and neocolonialism, often they shoot their eyes with a bun...and ignore the plight of the suffering masses. Zimbabwe is such a situation..African leaders have not been keen to publicly rebuke a regime that will not stop at nothing to stay in power.

Some few excerpts from Robert..." anyone advocating for a devaluation of the Zim dollar is a saboteur and an enemy of state"...a simple economic fundamental that Simba Makoni, Minister of Finance was trying to do in a bid to fix th woes that had bieseged ZIM...."Zimbawe was won through a war..we wont let this country go by a stroke of a pen".... this he says to drive home a point that no matter what happens during the elections, he wont allow MDC rule Zim. He goes on to issue threats of war against his own people. Offence..voting for a different party..a basic democratic right. Now I agree with Morgan "winning elections in Zim is one thing just like getting power is another"

These threats and the actual butchering and battering of innocent Zimbabwenas are not noticed by African leaders. There is no information available to them. After all we live in a world that ties good governance to evidence based policy making. So they say, Zimbabweans must take control of the situation themselves. Yes they have to..the mechanism is a ballot..it does exist. But wait a minute. I deplore such blindness. One Robert is threatening war if he looses and I quote "We are prepared to go to war if we loose the way it happened this other bllody night". Zimbabwe does not operate in a vacuum....its a country reduced to a basket but still a major economy in the region...I dont know whether our leaders have considered this. Businesss in our various countries with links to Zimbabwe are facing in tough. Malawi is not spared.

Why is it taking so long for Africa to act as Zimbabwe ceass to be a basket case but fast turning into a banana republic? Where is the moral voice of Madiba? Now if the guys goes in the bush..what does it mean for the region? Maybe until they shoot someone in our countries. I dont know.

Its funny how memories of our leaders get short. I guess Mugabe can learn some experiences from other leaders like Charles Taylor. He will be haunted one day like late Slobodan Milosevic....dictatorship is not fashionable..not even in my village...Mr Hannock Ngwira, my village headman, exercises some civility in how he runs the village. I am honored to sit in the governing council responsible for teenag affairs. Village teenagers are more notorious than their twon folks..atleast in my native Kabondwe...they carry axes on their shoulders...its part of a ngoni fashion.

Africa lets wake up and save Zim. Its time he left the scene. If you read this, no matter your briefs, say a brief prayer for our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe that face a ruthless government that is killing its own. Why get a whole Biti in leg irons?

No comments: