(ACNS) I am deeply pained by the terrible deterioration, disease and despair we are seeing in Zimbabwe.
I welcome signs that the South African government is alive to the implications of the total collapse of governance in Zimbabwe, of which we see new evidence daily.
But the silence of SADC leaders in general is disgraceful. Why throughout this crisis have we seen no evidence of public leadership from King Mswati III, chairperson of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation?
He should not only be taking high-profile action on Zimbabwe, but needs to show that peace and democracy are possible in his own country.
Are SADC’s leaders not moved by the terrible human suffering in Zimbabwe? Where is their ubuntu? Must people be massacred in Zimbabwe’s streets before SADC will take firm, decisive and public action? Will they even then?
No, SADC has failed and is morally bankrupt. President Mugabe has demonstrated again and again that he will not share power. He is no longer fit to rule. I appeal to the chair of the African Union, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania to step in and declare publicly that Mugabe’s rule is now illegitimate and that he must step aside, and for the AU to work speedily with the United Nations to set up a transitional government to take control.
Often it seems that when a regime is about to topple it becomes even more fiercely and wickedly repressive. I fear that this seems to be the case in Zimbabwe. Over the last few days there has been a stream of recent reports of abductions of critics of the Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Typically they are seized by armed men in the middle of the night and never seen again. It is deeply, hideously sad. I have often tried to forget Zimbabwe, where I have lived and worked, but then the picture of these good people comes up in my mind, people who have stood up for what is good and right and just and been smashed down as a result. The comments by Thabo Makgoba above are prophetic. I hope that the South African authorities and the SADC act, but I find it hard to hope. The SADC, by the way, means the Southern African Development Community, a kind of NAFTA for the region which also committed the countries concerned to seek fair and democratic government. The signatory states said that they would hold each other to account with regard to this. What a bitter irony that promise has been, so far. As a Christian I pray for Zimbabwe, but my heart breaks none the less.