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Good work CW. Here's a good one too:

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, once revered as a model African democrat, enters the weekend presidential election reviled by many of his former admirers as an example of the worst African traditions.

In power now for 22 years, the former Marxist guerilla has seen the vast majority at his first election win in 1980 dwindle to the real prospect of defeat in voting tomorrow and on Sunday.

"Mugabe seems to have gone bonkers in a big way," South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in January. "When you disregard the rule of law, when you do not allow space for dissent and when you use violence to silence your critics...you are on the slippery slope towards dictatorship with the trappings of a multi-party democracy," the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner said.

Few other African leaders have been so vocal in their public criticism of the man who led the former Rhodesia to Independence, to prosperity and then to penury. But South African government sources make it clear in private briefings that they and other African leaders have tried again and again to guide Mugabe back to democracy and the rule of law.

Mugabe (78) is seeking a third six-year term as president and a fifth term as leader of Zimbabwe's 13 million people, of whom just 70 000 are white. As unemployment and inflation have soared to record levels, he has repeatedly blamed an alleged British-led Western conspiracy for his country's economic woes.

Mugabe, known in liberal international circles 40 years ago as the thinking man's guerilla, was jailed for 10 years in 1964 for fighting white minority rule. But when, after a negotiated settlement with London and white leader Ian Smith, he was elected overwhelmingly as the first black prime minister, he offered forgiveness and reconciliation. He built schools, upgraded infrastructure for blacks left trailing under white rule and presided over a booming economy fuelled by heavy international borrowing.

After two terms as prime minister, he rewrote the constitution and won election as president in 1990.

The change was possible after he had crushed a seven-year armed rebellion in Matabeleland province and humbled his only rival for power, Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo.

There was a world outcry over alleged atrocities against civilians in Matabeleland, where mass graves are still being discovered.

Later, as the debt burden began to weigh and a younger generation of voters responded less enthusiastically to his liberation war record, Mugabe moved to shore up his support with patronage.

Farms bought from whites for landless peasants were given to cabinet ministers and soldiers, cronies won lucrative military contracts and Mugabe offered support to regional leaders no more popular at home than he had become.

An increasingly independent trade union movement defeated his attempts to raise fuel and food prices and rejected a proposed tax to fund war-veteran grants.

In February 2000, Mugabe tasted defeat for the first time when voters in a referendum rejected a new constitution that would have given him yet more powers. - Reuter.

Archbishop Tutu is now talking out of both sides of his mouth. An avowed Marxist and a racist , to boot, the man is only tlelong the Western press what they want to hear. The SAME things have been happening in South Africa , to the delight of the ANC and Tutu ! For the coulumnist to claim that the South African leaders are saying that they " privately " ( ? ) told Mugabe to shape up or ship out , is absurd ! Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, has already said that he will conviscate ALL white owned properties, in three years or less. The ANC thugs have emploied the SAME murderous tactis, since Mandela's " election ", and it is growing worse. The police, in South Africa, as well as the courts, turn a BLIND EYE , to most of the crime.

Oh, and for all of you VERY naieve people, who get on an Africa Watch thread, every now and again, and say : " THE WHITES SHOULD JUST LEAVE ! " , I have a question for you. ? They are forbidden , by the government, from taking much money out of the country, and MUST pettion the government to take their own money out, there are NO countries that will take the MILLIONS of whites , and even trying to get an immigration visa, is virtually impossible. Soooooooooooo , where should the whites , in South Africa and Zimbabwe go and how ? Besides not being allowed to take more than a paltry sum out of the country , the Rand has fallen to its lowest EVER value. Many can't even buy a plane ticket out. Maybe you want them to build rafts and try to navigate the Atlantic ? Is that it ?