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Enough is enough, Mr Mbeki
Geoffrey Nyarota, SW Radio Africa
April 14, 2008

http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/enough140408.htm

The constant and blatant refusal by President Mbeki of South Africa the SADC-appointed mediator in Zimbabwe's ongoing calamity to acknowledge that a crisis prevails in the country, in the first place, has now become a contributory factor to the worsening catastrophe.

Whether Mbeki defines a crisis as a catastrophe, an emergency, calamity, a predicament or a decisive or critical moment, Zimbabwe has been in the throes of one over the past eight years. Millions of words have been written and published on that subject. The dire situation has now been aggravated by events in the country in the aftermath of the harmonized elections held a fortnight ago.

It is insulting, insensitive and disrespectful of the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe for the South African President to state, as he did before the SADC heads of state in Lusaka late on Saturday night, that, as far as he is concerned, there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. Mr Mbeki remains firmly stuck in his customary state of denial.

As far as he is concerned any talk of a crisis in Zimbabwe is nothing but a figment of the collective imagination of the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe. To him the crisis is a creation of an opposition MDC anxious to win the sympathy of the international community. The fact that the results of presidential elections conducted two weeks ago remain a closely guarded secret appears to be of no consequence to the South African leader. "Let us wait for the outcome of the results," he enjoined us all while in London last week.

Mr Mbeki is not perturbed that, instead of waiting for the controversial results, Mr Mugabe and his party started to prepare for a re-run of the presidential poll. Neither does he seem concerned that this particular strategy now appears to have been abandoned in favour of a ballot recount, not only of the presidential election, but also of the parliamentary, senate and local government elections in 23 of the 108 constituencies where Zanu-PF lost to the MDC.

Mr Mbeki's problem is quite clear. He is totally at a loss as to what exactly is happening on the Zimbabwe political landscape, his handicap being compounded by the fact that his major source of information on the Zimbabwe crisis is none other than the major cause of the disaster, President Mugabe.

The Lusaka Summit was still-born the moment President Mbeki decided to engage in a last round of "quiet diplomacy" in Harare before proceeding to attend the summit. But Mr Mbeki has effectively squandered the last opportunity at his disposal to salvage or redeem whatever remained of his much tarnished reputation and credibility vis a vis the Zimbabwe situation.

Mr Mbeki has revealed that, like many politicians, he is a man of double standards. Recently he emerged with a bruised image from the ANC congress in Pholokwane where his party ditched him as leader in favour of his erstwhile deputy, Jacob Zuma, warts and all.

Mr Mbeki was gracious and exemplary in his acceptance of defeat. He never challenged the outcome. Neither did he request that announcement of results be postponed while he secretly arranged to take on Zuma again in a recount.

He did not demand a recount, a luxury that has been denied to the Zimbabwean opposition each time they have complained of blatant electoral theft by Mr Mugabe's party.

The ANC had spoken and Mr Mbeki respected the will of the people.

In a functioning democracy the vote is the ultimate weapon in the hands of a citizenry fighting against willful abuse of their civil rights and against their subjection to violence, lawlessness, deprivation, humiliation as well as corrupt and incompetent governance.

Zimbabweans have over the years been accused and ridiculed for having too high a thresh-hold for tolerance and patience. But, being law-abiding citizens they patiently bided their time. On March 29 they finally spoke.

Now Mr Mbeki tells the world that the people of Zimbabwe must continue to wait for "the outcome of the results", whatever that means. He does not see any linkage between the ongoing drama and the statement by Mr Mugabe that Mr Morgan Tsvangirai would "never ever" be President of Zimbabwe. He is deaf to the threat by the security chiefs that they would never salute Tsvangirai if he won the election.

This was no idle threat.

In fact, Mr Mbeki does not seem to understand what is really happening in Zimbabwe. His misunderstanding emanates from his resort to entirely inappropriate sources of information, foremost among them President Mugabe himself. Mr Mbeki would have nodded his head vigorously as his peer reminded him on Saturday that the MDC was a latter-day British strategy for the re-colonization of Zimbabwe.

He would have been told that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was overwhelmed by the pressure of counting; that some ZEC members succumbed to temptation and were bribed by the MDC. Above all, Mr Mugabe would have driven it into his guest's head that what the opposition, civil society and the international community viewed as a crisis was nothing other than a ploy by the MDC to gain international recognition and sympathy.

This is the message he limply and shamelessly regurgitated in Lusaka.

What President Mbeki fails to appreciate is that his counterpart in Harare has long ceased to be a free man and a powerful head of state, acting in the interests of the people of Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe has effectively become a prisoner inside State House. It is very likely that the decision not to attend the summit in Lusaka was thrust upon him by the military, now effectively the powers behind the throne in Harare.

For it is quite clear that it is they who now run the show in a state that has over the years been gradually militarized. That they would not salute anyone who did not go to war was a provident slip of the tongue that Zimbabweans made the costly mistake of not taking seriously.

It is patently clear that it is not Mugabe who is refusing to leave office. After all he vacated State House a long time ago and moved into his own private residence. The whole electoral process was travesty conducted under the watchful eye of the military. The top ZEC officials were recruited from the ranks of the military. The Joint Operations Command is a military institution which has usurped civilian presidential powers. It is they who have been manipulating the whole electoral process since March 29; they who conveyed the tragic news about Mugabe's humiliation at the polls and they who have been manipulating him and running the show ever since.

They swung into instant action to stage-manage what now amounts to a military coup with an elderly civilian face.It is they, after all, who stand to lose the most in the event of a change of government.

"The President will most likely be pardoned," they say. "What about us?"

While the rest of Zimbabwe misplaced its collective faith in Mbeki, the military stage-managed a gradual transfer of power to themselves. This happened once they realised that the civilian challenge to Mugabe was ineffectual, being entirely engrossed in squabbling over power and perks and in a public and arrogant display of their high-sounding yet mostly irrelevant academic credentials. If it wasn't for the greed, vanity and total loss of focus among the ranks of the opposition, last weeks electoral victory would not have been delivered on a plate to the military, as has now happened. History will judge them harshly.

The least that the opposition leaders can do to redeem themselves is distance themselves from the dictatorship and place nation before self for a change.

The military now control Mugabe and have acquired economic power through looting of state resources and looting of diamonds during their profitable deployment to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Now they seek total control of political power. They have talented strategists among them. They realised over the course of last week that Mugabe would lose a re-run of the presidential election. So they embarked on a new strategy - a recount this week of the ballots in 23 constituencies disputed by Zanu-PF. At the end of the process the ZEC will declare Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF the winners by an appropriately clear majority.

Meanwhile the military have deployed strategically throughout the country to enforce acceptance of the new result. It is no coincidence that ruthless violence has reared its ugly head in the countryside again.

Very soon our educated politicians will salute General Constantine Chiwenga, commander of the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe. The more opportunistic among them will be co-opted into some military-controlled government of national unity. Effectively the capricious Mrs Jocelyn Chiwenga will become the First Lady of Zimbabwe. Many more educated and skilled Zimbabweans will join the exodus into the Diaspora as they flee from a deepening economic morass, worsening political instability and, possibly, bloodshed - all in a bid to safe-guard the mansions and other filthy wealth of the Chiwengas.

President Mbeki obviously does not see any crisis on our continent, unless there is bloodshed. In Zimbabwe his wishes could soon be fulfilled. Mr Mugabe has been effectively emasculated by the security chiefs, who will try this week to impose on the people the result of a manipulated recount.

Unfortunately, the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe could easily say: Enough is enough. When that happens the blood of the people of Zimbabwe will, to a considerable extent, be on the hands of the President of South Africa.

Nevertheless, it is clear that brave but beleaguered Zimbabweans need and deserve all the support they can muster from those responsible leaders of the SADC and AU, who clearly recognize the urgent need for an end to the ongoing madness. The will of the Zimbabwe people, so clearly expressed through the ballot box, must be respected and fully acknowledged.

Democracy, not the military, must emerge triumphant, however much President Mbeki and other gullible Mugabe apologists, especially inside Zimbabwe, remain in a state of maddening denial.

Yes, enough is enough. And African leaders are now rightly in the international spotlight to see whether democracy can start its fight back against military oppression in Zimbabwe. Indeed, Africa, not just Zimbabwe, must now choose between a peaceful and effective solution or violent chaos.

And the growing pressure for meaningful democratic change will not be silenced, however violent the internal military efforts to snuff it out.

The people of Zimbabwe must march triumphantly at long last, their march being much deserved reward for their wonderful display of endurance and maturity in the face of acute provocation.

As for Mr Mugabe and General Chiwenga, they have been adequately compensated for their contribution to the liberation of Zimbabwe from colonial rule. As a further token of their gratitude, I believe Zimbabweans are prepared to forgive them for their brazen measures to clandestinely augment that reward.

*Geoffrey Nyarota is the Managing Editor of thezimbabwetimes.com and author of Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman.

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