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Cleric hammers Mbeki on Zimbabwe crisis
Dumisani Muleya, Business Day (SA)
November 23, 2006

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A324588

ZIMBABWE’s outspoken Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo said yesterday in London that the humanitarian emergency in Zimbabwe was critical. He lambasted President Thabo Mbeki for his inaction when urgent measures were needed.

Ncube, one of President Robert Mugabe’s most outspoken critics, told a media conference in London that the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe was intensifying.

He said he was baffled by Mbeki’s inability to tackle the Zimbabwe crisis when the effects of collapse in his neighbourhood had created problems for SA.

"Mbeki has his own agendas, he knows there is a crisis in Zimbabwe, yet he continues to support Mugabe," Ncube said.

He said at least 2-million Zimbabweans, mostly illegal immigrants, were eking out a living in SA after fleeing economic problems back home.

More than 4-million Zimbabweans are out of the country largely due to mass unemployment, poverty and political instability. Mbeki has said in the past there were 3-million Zimbabweans in SA.

Ncube said the humanitarian situation in the country was fast deteriorating and that the international community "must do something urgently".

About 3500 Zimbabweans die weekly from a combination of malnutrition, poverty and HIV/AIDS — suggesting more die in Zimbabwe each week than in Darfur.

World Health Organisation figures released this year place life expectancy in Zimbabwe at 34 years for women and 37 for men — the lowest in the world. In comparison, life expectancy in Iraq for men is 51 and for women it is 61.

Ncube said that although Zimbabwe had one of the highest HIV infection rates globally, with more than 24% of the population infected, life expectancy figures could not be blamed only on AIDS. Zimbabwe’s neighbouring countries have the same or greater levels of AIDS prevalence, but their life expectancy figures are better. Life expectancy in SA is 47 for men and 49 for women.

The Uited Nations recently warned that 6,1-million Zimbabweans face starvation. Ncube said half the population, roughly 6-million people, were experiencing food shortages in one way or another. He said Zimbabwe had never before been in such a dire socio-economic or political crisis.

Reports in Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald newspaper said yesterday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Mugabe, who is on a four-day state visit to Iran, that western states were "bullying" economically challenged Zimbabwe.

He promised to support Mugabe’s government in the face of mounting global pressure.

Ahmadinejad told Mugabe that Iran backed Zimbabwe’s controversial programme of seizing land owned by whites.

The Zimbabwean president — under fire from many in the west for human rights abuses and the chaotic redistribution of farms — has already witnessed the signing of a number of agreements to "foster co-operation" between Zimbabwe and Iran in the fields of agriculture, aid, education, politics and oil, the Herald said.

On Tuesday Mugabe met Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and yesterday visited a tractor factory. With DPA

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