By Wilbert Mukori
There is a lot more to President Jacob Zuma’s boycott of the EU – Africa summit than meets the eye and every freedom loving South African must now sit up and pay attention before it is too late!
“I think that time must pass wherein we are looked as subjects,” President Zuma told SABC. “We are told who must come, who must not come. We have not attempted to decide when we meet Europe; who must come and who must not come. It is wrong and causes this unnecessary unpleasantness.”
The European Union, United States of America, Australia, Canada and many other Western countries did not impose the targeted sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies out of the blue; they imposed the sanctions to show their displeasure at the tyrannical regime’s repeated failure to hold free and fair elections and thus deny the ordinary Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Of all the leaders in this world President Zuma knows only too well how Mugabe has repeatedly rigged the elections. He and Thabo Mbeki, before him, have seen the reports on how Mugabe rigged the 2002 elections. Indeed he is the one who has stubbornly refused to release the report even when the Court said he should.
Of all the leaders on earth President Zuma should know the suffering and despair millions of Zimbabweans have endured as a consequence of Zimbabwe’s political and economic mess. South Africa has seen more Zimbabwean political and economic refugees than any other country in the world.
Mugabe is a corrupt and murderous tyrant; this is a myth but a daily reality for the people of Zimbabwe. 34 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and brutal political repression have reduced Zimbabwe into one of the poorest in the region. Zimbabwe’s continued economic and political mess is the single biggest threat to economic growth and stability in the SADC region.
It is inconceivable that someone like President Zuma has failed to see Mugabe for the corrupt and murderous tyrant he is. That is simply impossible. President Zuma is refusing to see Mugabe for the tyrannical dictator he is because he is himself becoming one!
Only last week President Zuma was heavily criticized for spending $20 million of unauthorised public funds improving his rural mansion. He refused to own up and his ruling ANC party all rallied behind him. The motive of the other ANC leaders in supporting him is as clear as day; they too can now indulge themselves in all manner of corrupt activities confident Zuma will turn a blind eye to it all.
Two decades after the end of apartheid millions of black South Africans still live in abject poverty. Stories of rampant corruption amongst the governing ANC leaders will only pour petrol to the fire and fury of the restless masses. Worse still, the passing away of the iconic ANC leader Nelson Mandela; has meant more than the death of the leader but of the democratic ideals he fought for all his life.
The late President Mandela’s contempt of Robert Mugabe for the tyrant’s greed and betrayal of freedom and liberty is a matter of public record. President Zuma knew well enough where Madimba stood with Mugabe. In a way that President Zuma was careful not to follow Mugabe’s footsteps, at least not whilst Madiba lived.
Madiba is dead and President Zuma’s own political popularity and that of ANC are sinking like a stone. One does not need to be a university graduate in Political Science to know what President Zuma is thinking. He is definitely planning to bend if not outright break the democratic rules to stay in power!
If you are going to commit the same offence it makes sense to side with those who have themselves committed the same crime, particularly when the criminal is a cunning fox like Mugabe who would only be to glad to expose you as a hypocrite otherwise. One does not want to cosy up with the judges of the crime either.
President Zuma has an excuse should the West ever be critical of his contact in the future; “They are punishing SA for refusing to have Europe dictate to Africa!” An answer straight from Comrade Robert Mugabe’s red book: “The West imposed the sanctions on Zimbabwe because we took away the land from the white farmers!”
When President Zuma failed to failed to impose his authority on Mugabe throughout the GNU although, as SADC head in the crisis he had the political and economic clout and the moral authority and obligation to do; alarm bells should have started to ringing in the whole SADC region but loudest in SA itself.
Tyrants and dictators are like bad a storm; they do not suddenly appear. The storm is announced by the gathering winds and the darkening sky. And so too are tyrants; corruption and lawlessness are their forerunners!
During the dark years of apartheid President Zuma, like all the other African leaders, strongly supported the imposition of sanctions against the white racist and oppressive regime.
Today even lesser sanctions are imposed of a corrupt and tyrannical regime and you calmly accuse those doing something positive to end this tragic affair of being disrespectful of Africa. Their stance is “wrong and causes this unnecessary unpleasantness”! You are clearly not on the side of the long suffering masses of Africa; that much is clear!
