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The end beckons
Barney Mthombothi, Financial Mail (SA)
March 23, 2007

http://free.financialmail.co.za/07/0323/front/ednote.htm

Zimbabwe has become a real pain. I'm sick of it. There's hardly anything one can say that has not been said many times before, and in much more elegant and forthright language. But we can't help it. SA is joined at the hip to Zimbabwe.

The country is close to home in more ways than one. What's happening there offends against everything we purport to stand for; it reminds us of our awful past, and it defies logic how some of our compatriots can be laissez faire about it.

But it's a pain or an albatross that just won't go away. Those who think that Zimbabwe, if appropriately ignored - like crime, corruption or Aids - will simply evaporate are living in cloud-cuckoo-land.

There's hope, though. A silver lining of sorts. Despite all the blood and guts of the past few weeks, there's no doubt that a Rubicon has finally been crossed in Zimbabwe. The country has reached a point of no return which can only lead to the final liquidation of Robert Mugabe's regime.

But it won't be without a lot of suffering, even death. Mugabe has demonstrated in the past that he won't go without a fight. Thousands of graves of innocent civilians in Matabeleland - victims of the notorious Fifth Brigade - bear testimony to Mugabe's brutality. We looked the other way at the time. So did the rest of Africa. We could not bring ourselves to believe that this icon of the struggle could unleash a killing machine against the very people he had given so much to liberate. It was untrue, we told ourselves. It was part of the colonial conspiracy to demonise our heroes.

In order to stay in power, Mugabe has embarked on a scorched earth policy that has all but ruined his country. We dare not even whisper any condemnation, however guarded, lest we be accused of siding with imperial masters such as Tony Blair and their running dogs. And so we remain steadfast in our support of Comrade Mugabe and his heroic Zanu- PF forces.

Perhaps those who were not inside SA for the better part of the 1970s and 1980s ( at the height of internal insurrection) cannot understand what the people of Zimbabwe are going through. They cannot empathise or fathom what it feels like to be at the mercy of a brutal and oppressive dictator; to be hunted like an animal in your own country. Suffering is what they read about in books.

The sight of a dazed, bruised and battered Morgan Tsvangirai does not evoke any feeling of shame, of guilt, or sympathy. He's a running dog. He deserves everything he gets. Our allegiance is to the heroic forces of the liberation struggle.

But the attack on the leadership of the opposition is not only a sign of Mugabe's desperation, it also sends a powerful signal that the opposition is at last standing up to his regime. For too long the opposition has been unwilling or scared to confront Mugabe. There's no way of dealing with conflict other than to confront it. Take him on. That's the only language tyrants understand. Fear is the most effective weapon in Mugabe's armoury. Get over it, and the battle is half won.

The opposition leaders cannot expect supporters to demonstrate and expose themselves to state thuggery if they themselves are not prepared to take the pain. For too long, opposition to Mugabe has amounted to nothing more than pleas to the international community to come to the rescue. International pressure is a function or a consequence of internal agitation. It is only when Zimbabweans themselves take the fight to the enemy that the world will lend a hand. Recent events seem to suggest that the opposition may at last be prepared to create and lead that internal crucible for change.

The message for Zimbabweans is, and has always been: you're on your own.

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