Africa's heart of darkness - Zimbabwe's corrupt ruler will do anything to hang on to power

Toronto Sun ^ | March 8, 2002 | Peter Worthington

[Clive]

C By Monday, the world should know the results of elections in Zimbabwe, where 78-year-old Robert Mugabe, Marxist freedom fighter turned tyrant, is fighting (literally) to cling to power.

His opponent for president, Morgan Tsvangirai, leads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and is as brave, principled and resolute as Mugabe is tyrannical and corrupt.

Zimbabwe, arguably, is the saddest story in Africa - a continent replete with horror stories and needless violence where the people of virtually every country were better off in every way under colonialism than they are with independence.

When it won independence through a guerrilla war against the Rhodesian government of Ian Smith, which was boycotted by the world, Zimbabwe was the most self-sufficient country in black Africa, excluding South Africa.

It had everything. When he took power, Mugabe publicly acknowledged gratitude to Smith (who is still alive and defiant in Salisbury-cum Harare) for making Zimbabwe self-sufficient. Rhodesia's white population either fled or became Zimbabwean citizens - and were essential to keep the country's economy working.

But corruption and incompetence were not to be denied.

The curse of Africa, as reiterated to the Organization of African Unity by Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki, is "tribalism (racism) and corruption."

Today's problems can't be blamed on colonialism.

Delegates didn't want to hear this, but had to acknowledge it was true. And nowhere is this truer than in Zimbabwe.

Despite The New York Times' contention a cause for Africa's misery is "shameful neglect" by western aid givers, the opposite is true. Instead of helping struggling African countries gain their feet, foreign aid has almost guaranteed recipients become tyrannies. Foreign aid doesn't help the people of impoverished African countries, it entrenches dictatorships. If the outside world provides food, it enables existing regimes to spend more on guns and repression - witness Ethiopia under the homicidal Marxist Col. Hail Mariam Mengistu, who was overthrown and given sanctuary in Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

When Britain's Tony Blair sought sanctions against Mugabe last week at the Commonwealth conference in Australia, most African countries said no - not because they approve of what Mugabe has been doing, but because they fear such sanctions could be imposed against them if they try to hold on to power.

Mugabe's opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, has been harassed, jailed, and threatened with death, yet he labours on, fighting on behalf of all citizens, black and white, who are being terrorized by Mugabe's thugs. Those who fight back are beaten or killed. After 22 years of Mugabe, Zimbabwe has 60% unemployment, a third of its adult population is infected with the AIDS virus, the annual inflation rate is over 100% and food shortages are endemic.

Yet Mugabe has sent 10,000 soldiers to fight in an unpopular civil war in Congo, and has made it illegal for the media to criticize him.

Zimbabwe's white population, which kept the economy functioning for two decades, is now blamed for every failing.

I was in Zimbabwe 20 years ago, when the country was flush with independence, and returned 10 years later to find drastic changes. There was no toothpaste in stores - because there was no material for toothpaste tubes. Residents couldn't travel abroad with more than $100. White farmers became economic prisoners, unable to take their money out if they sold their holdings. Yet government ministers travelled the world to attend conferences, lived in plush housing, had big cars and thrived on bribes and corruption.

At his headquarters in Bulawayo, Joshua Nkomo, leader of the Matabele people who had led the fight for independence, became a target of Mugabe because of his popularity. He felt so threatened he sent his family to Canada.

I visited Nkomo a couple of times, and he was resigned to intimidation against him. He finally made peace with Mugabe in order to ease violence against the Ndebele people by Mugabe, who imported North Korean soldiers to wreak havoc against enemies in the name of security. When I was there, doctors - white and black - complained that if they identified AIDS as a problem they risked arrest, expulsion or worse.

In neighbouring Zambia, it was similar. AIDS was so prevalent that members of then-president Kenneth Kaunda's immediate family died from it, yet the disease could not be mentioned openly.

If the present elections in Zimbabwe are fair, Mugabe will be out. But he'd have been defeated in the last elections had they been fair. The world turns a blind eye to corrupt African regimes - until they are deposed. Look at the uncritical international support for Mengistu in Ethiopia until he was bounced. As well as the "disease" of foreign aid supporting despotic regimes, the practice of forgiving loans - something favoured by Canada - also guarantees corruption and incompetence.

If, by some miracle, Morgan Tsvangirai wins in Zimbabwe, his greatest threat may come from the international community rushing to help him. He should be wary of foreigners bearing gifts and forgivable loans.

[Clive]

Less than one percent of the population of Zimbabwe is white.

I suspect that the number of effectives is proportionally less than that.

This is the autumn in the southern hemisphere. the harvest will be a poor one. A year ago the government was ony willing to admit to a projected maize (mealy meal) shortfall of 100,000 tonnes. At that time independent expert opinion was that the shortfall would be on the order of 600,000 tonnes. the current projection is over 1,000.000 tonnes, which Zim can't afford and hasn't the ifrastructure to import and distribute on an emergency basis.

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