President's brother condemns Zimbabwe policy
Thank God for Mbeki. No, not President Thabo Mbeki who is a bloody disgrace, but his brother Moeletsi who has had the courage to say that his brother's "softly, softly" approach towards Zimbabwe's President Mugabe is simply not working.
I have long argued that Mbeki is the only man who can make Mugabe see the error of his ways, but even Mugabe's recent decision to gerrymander the forthcoming elections in a blatant way that will guarantee his own victory has not made Mbeki change his mind about his policy.
It is simply disgraceful and an abject failure of duty.
Yesterday, even his own brother felt moved to object.
He said that South Africa might have to intervene militarily to stop the collapse of Zimbabwe.Delivering a lecture at the University of Pretoria's Centre for International Political Studies' Africa Dialogue series on Thursday, Moeletsi Mbeki described "South Africa's political elite" as the main "obstacle" to any efforts to save Zimbabwe from collapse. He said the South African government was doing so little to save Zimbabwe because the narrow interests of its ruling elite were not affected.
It was the poor masses in South Africa who were bearing the brunt of Zimbabwe's collapse as they competed with millions of illegal immigrants for jobs and services.
A quarter of Zimbabwe's population has fled to South Africa to escape poverty and deprivation at home, and illegal immigration is said to have increased dramatically since 11 March, when Zimbabwean police assaulted opposition leaders and kick-started a state sponsored orgy of violence against opposition officials.
The President's brother said the national interest of ordinary South Africans was to see the restoration of Zimbabwe's economy to stop the influx of immigrants. He said that South Africa's ruling elite was propping up the Zimbabwean regime by calling it a democratic government when it was clearly a dictatorship.
There is, of course, no chance of that. If Mbeki won't utter a word of condemnation towards this blatantly dictatorial regime, then he's certainly not got the guts to mount a war.
But his brother's words will hopefully have some resonance in South Africa and force others to question just exactly why their President remains so steadfastly silent in the face of Mugabe's continuing atrocities.
Click title for full article.
No comments:
Post a Comment