Monday, 28 April 2008

A house divided...

An extraordinary attack on SADC members, especially Zambia, this saturday from Robert Mugabe's mouthpiece The Herald. Excerpt :

"In 1998, Sadc faced an invasion of a member state. Only Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola had the courage and conviction to go to war in defence of that country. No one else did, not even the then chairman of the Organs who today exhibits unfamiliar cheek. Let's not flaunt courage from a Dutch bottle, or from disability threatening to unhinge brains.Zimbabwe has peace, more peace than many in the neighbourhood. Zimbabwe runs better elections, far better than any on the continent. Let us not have holy sermons from out and out sinners who have offended democracy a thousand times over. We have had election-related riots in the neighbourhood. We have had national armies deploying to battle a bitter and outraged opposition in streets of capitals. Businesses have screeched to a loud stop, not far from us. Results have been tempered with, with well-documented assistance from the British whose record of fudging elections date back to Nkrumah's Ghana. "

THEMES :

7 Comments:

  1. Was it Lesotho that was "invaded" in 1998 ?
    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the piece refers to DRC :)
    ReplyDelete
  3. I often forget that DRC is part of the SADC.

    Well both happened in 1998 and created controversies. Mostly because SA and Botswana intervened in Lesotho like 3 months after having refused to intervene in DRC (militarily).

    Now what's weird is anyone taking pride in the DRC intervention. At least the one in Lesotho was a success. No one can claim any sort of conviction or courage when discussing the Congo War, let alone claiming it was in defense of that country.
    ReplyDelete
  4. Well it makes for a change from attacks on SADC and Thabo Mbeki from the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai.

    First they wanted to have Mbeki replaced with Mwanawasa, before that they attacked SADC for being a talking shop that wouldn't send troops, etc.
    ReplyDelete
  5. And i suppose the zimbabweans would have a fairy life if only the west did not sanction them, maybe I suppose castros cuba would have had a terrible health system too seeing rationing and sanctions there is still a norm of life!
    But then in Our Africa we always need some one to blame, and by the way isnt everyhting on planet earth coming from china including guns, rice ,soap, clothes and chickens too!
    but then we are now in conspiracy theories we are not even sure if its true a man landed on the moon, a mugabe is actually a saint and we just are blind....if they hold elections it should be a regional affair were money is spent to give cakes to all these who surely wont say or see anything coz the're in the same game.
    hard to see through all this mess!!!
    ReplyDelete
  6. Dearest dr. Chanda,

    And i suppose the zimbabweans would have a fairy life if only the west did not sanction them,

    Well, Zimbabwe would be a lot better off without the Land Apportionment Act, the 'Willing Buyer, Willing Seller' clause in the Lancaster House Agreement, etc.

    The issue of Zimbabwe reconstituting it's own economy is not a matter of blaming the west, but of taking responsibility for ones own course in life.

    Most African people had been excluded from the center of the country, which by no coincidence was the land with the best rainfall.

    And if sanctions didn't work, why have them at all? Remember that back in the day, Margaret Thatcher claimed that it would be wrong to have sanctions against South Africa because 'sanctions don't work' and 'only hurt ordinary people'. Now, the British government can't wait to institute more sanctions against Zimbabwe.

    When are we going to hear about the Zimbabwean government's valiant efforts to mechanize agriculture and turn land reform into full scale agrarian reform?

    This isn't about living in a fairy tale, but about rolling up sleaves and planning and working hard to achieve goals.

    Welcome to agriculture, comrade. :)
    ReplyDelete
  7. When are we going to hear about the Zimbabwean government's valiant efforts to mechanize agriculture and turn land reform into full scale agrarian reform?

    This is comical. Here you have the government of Zimbabwe through its press organ claiming that somehow receiving 2000 tractors "proves the magnitude of the mechanisation programme, which came through meticulous planning by the Government, the central bank and the suppliers", (planning that took 10 years since the Land Reform, almost 30 since independence and I don't know how much since the government was formed as a political movement) and you call it a valliant effort ?
    I know you're gonna say what it sounds like doesn't matter because you have a special connection giving you the perfect information on everything Zimbabwe but it does sound like reading Pravda during the Great Ukrainian Famine, or reading what the Chinese said during the Great Leap or reading what Mobutu's media said when he was in power.
    But yeah, there's a worldwide conspiracy to ignore the great, patriotic effort the government of Zimbabwe put into planning the acquisition of 2,000 tractors (and the rest of the stuff) donated by the Chinese !

    Dude, if it sounds like propaganda, it probably is, no matter who it's coming from.
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)