Beatings put Zimbabwe back on International Arena


By Alois. P. Mbawara

One can perceive the recent brutal attacks on civic leaders with a two-edged knife as a bad and as a good development. I will start with the bad side of it. It is true that Robert Mugabe has vowed to persist with his iron-fisted rule as a way to clinch onto power. He does not accept that people have and are suffering to due to his bad policies which have led to the dramatic economic meltdown we continue to see in Zimbabwe today.

The brutal beatings are a clear indication that Mugabe and his cronies do not respect and don't care about the majority as long they are in power. Considering the economic decay, all the mounting international pressure and condemnation against the state of affairs in Zimbabwe, Mugabe should now be in a position to accept that it is not possible for Zimbabwe under his rule to proper economically due to the trade sanctions and the collapse of the agricultural system (the back-bone of the economy).

Yes we have taken farms from the white commercial farmers, then what? Are we as a country able to supply the new farmers with inputs and the knowledge they should have to farm at commercial level and sustain food security? The evidence is there for all to see. The Zimbabwe government has failed dismally hence the food crisis we face in the country today. And Joseph Made continues to mock our intelligence as Zimbabweans by suggesting the food crisis is not a direct result of his government’s poor and unplanned land reforms. He blames a monkey for the crisis in the country after it “sabotaged” or “tampered” with a transformer at Sable Chemicals, the country’s sole fertiliser producer.

Made, Mugabe and colleagues also tend to blame the targeted sanctions against them as the root of the rot in the country. The sanctions have nothing to do with the deficits we are facing today. It is because the so-called new farmers don't have the adequate inputs and knowledge to supply millers and bakers at national level hence the government gazetting bread prices leading to artificial food shortages.Simple logic and economics shows there is no way one can put a price control on a commodity without considering the cost of production.

There is nothing wrong with subsidies but do they have the money to do so and for how long will they be able to do so. There are many questions that are left unanswered. For example with the level of corruption in the country today, will the subsidies not worsen the ordinary person’s life in the long run and corruption with those who have hoarding commodities and re-selling at higher prices. All indicators in our country show that Mugabe and his cronies no longer care about the need for a healthy economy in the country. They do not have the solutions to the country’s crisis hence they now resort to shock treatments of those within the pro-democracy movement. They would rather deal ruthlessly with unarmed protesters like Wellington Chibhebhe and Lucia Matibenga and not talk to the opposition and all other stakeholders on how they could come together and salvage something out of the mess we find ourselves in.

Mugabe is only interested in maintaining his stranglehold on power. He will rule until the *censored*s come home to roost. Instead of addressing the political and economic crisis in the country, the man would rather put all his remaining money and strength in brutal efforts to fight for political survival.The good thing about the beatings is that on-going streets protest and sacrifices by civic leaders have managed to put back Zimbabwe into the international arena. It has sent a message to the likes of Thabo Mbeki and Kofi Annan who had fooled the world that the crisis in Zimbabwe was being addressed. It comes again as an embarrassment to Kofi Annan who recently told the world that Mugabe was accepting the reality on the need for an urgent solution to the Zimbabwean crisis.

What is happening now in Zimbabwe is also proof that the so-called Benjamin Mkapa mediation talk was being used to buy more time for the brutal Mugabe government, allowing him to continue to terrorise our leaders trying to galvanise support to bring him to the negotiating table or force him to call it quits after 26 years in power. At this point of time it very crucial for all pro-democracy forces all over the world to put their differences aside and expose the continuation of abuses of human rights to the international community, mainly African countries.

That is our biggest weakness - we are failing to convince our African counterparts of the real situation obtaining on the ground and why they should support our cause. All Western countries know and are aware of what Mugabe is doing but our own brothers are the ones which need to be worked with.Diaspora has the biggest role to play in exposing to our African counterparts the need to put pressure on SADC member states for them to help put more pressure on Mugabe and his colleagues. South Africa has the key for a new democratic Zimbabwe, lets take the advantage that civic societies in South Africa are with us. And lets all work with these civic groups so as to influence the South Africa government to criticise the Zanu PF regime.

Mbeki is now cornered home and abroad and will be forced to reform from his Zee diplomacy.It is now or never. We can’t wait and watch Mugabe postpone the presidential election to 2010. We the people of Zimbabwe need change like yesterday in our country. There is no way Zimbabweans can go to elections with the present Constitution with a corrupt electoral system that is not fit for purpose. The judiciary system is strongly biased towards Zanu PF. I think mass disobedience is the only way Mugabe can come to the negotiation table.

"And as we always say our criticism is liberty,why because the Mugabe regime has never done anything for us(Youth)with all our Zim nation being denied their civil rights"


Never tasted Independents