Daylight robbery
When the young Robert Mugabe attained power 22 years ago, he told an awestruck Ian Smith "you have given me the jewel of Africa" and pledged himself to reconciliation, multiculturalism and cricket. Since then, in the words of Desmond Tutu, Zimbabwe's president has "gone bonkers in a big way." Writing this as Zimbabweans vote in an election that Mugabe's Zanu-PF has almost certainly stolen, one is struck by the silence in the rest of Africa. South Africa's Thabo Mbeki expressed "concern over the danger of civil conflict" in Zimbabwe last November, but since then, hardly a word.
The net is an excellent way of finding African journalism on the subject. Indeed, given the BBC's expulsion from the country, it has assumed even greater importance. The bravely independent Zimbabwean newspaper, the Daily News (www.dailynews.co.zw), accuses Zanu of blatantly rigging the elections. A recent editorial declares that the Commonwealth let Zimbabweans down by failing to demonstrate its "utter repugnance at the government's gross violation of its citizens' rights." The huge and magnificent Allafrica.com website is a forum for news in French and English from across the continent and reproduces an opinion article from the beleaguered Zimbabwe Standard entitled, "Full Speed to Dictatorship" by the Zimbabwean writer Chenjerai Hove. There is also a very good piece on the policy differences that divide Mugabe's Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC, which revolve around corruption, privatisation (Tsvangirai is for it) and, of course, land. These differences are fleshed out on the party's respective websites: the MDC at mdczimbabwe.com and Zanu-PF at www.zanupfpub.co.zw.
In an article entitled "Why African States Won't Condemn Mugabe," Kenyan newspaper, the East African (nationaudio.com) points out that Zanu's anger over land distribution "resonates in many African countries," and offers this as the reason why Nigeria and South Africa, have declared that "the situation in Zimbabwe does not warrant sanctions or condemnation." Despite such official reticence, Nigeria's Guardian Newspaper (ngrguardiannews.com) is quick to point out Mugabe's political and economic failings, while an eloquent editorial in Nigeria's Vanguard, (vanguardngr.com) is critical of both the international response to the crisis (which it sees primarily in racial terms) and Mugabe's pre-election behaviour, which it calls "curious and deadly... even by African standards." In the end, however, the paper comes down in favour of Mugabe. Anti-Britishness, it seems, wins out.
This view is contradicted by the Zimbabwean Human rights Forum (hrforumzim.com), which publishes a regularly updated list of human rights violations. These accounts of political terrorism, rape, intimidation, smears and gerrymandering make for grim reading.
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