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Getting rid of Robert Mugabe
The Daily Telegraph (UK)
August 17, 2007

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/08/17/dl1702.xml

We are told that southern Africa is concerned about Robert Mugabe. It is said that the millions who have fled Zimbabwe are unsettling neighbouring countries; and that his wrecking of the economy is giving the region a bad name as a destination for trade and investment.

Yet, yesterday in Lusaka, it was Mr Mugabe who received the loudest applause at a summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Its heads of state, or at least some of them, may be concerned, but such an ovation will merely strengthen the old tyrant's hand.

What explains this contradiction? First, there is Mr Mugabe's status as the oldest of the freedom-fighting leaders still in office. Then there is his brilliantly successful propaganda campaign, which quite erroneously alleges that "illegal" Western sanctions have ruined the economy, whereas, in fact, they have merely imposed a visa ban and an asset freeze on about
100 named officials.

Finally, there is the well-attested reluctance of African leaders to criticise their peers, at any rate in public.

Readers of this newspaper have been reminded of the dire state of Zimbabwe, from hospitals starved of basic medical supplies to deserted factories and stripped supermarket shelves, by a series of reports from inside the country by Sebastien Berger, our Southern Africa Correspondent.

The most telling illustration of Mr Mugabe's wrecking of an economy once regarded as the regional breadbasket is the inflation rate, which the last official figure gave as more than 4,500 per cent; according to the International Monetary Fund, it could top the 100,000 mark by the end of the year. In other words, while Mr Mugabe remains president - and he is due to stand again next March - things are going to get a lot worse.

Ascribing this disaster, nearly a generation after independence, to neo-colonialist machinations may not fully persuade SADC members, but does at least secure their acquiescence. Yesterday's applause confirmed that outside pressure will play only a minor role in Mr Mugabe's demise. That will be effected from within, most likely through a palace coup.

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