South Africa

                               "Can I get a hell yeah..."

Dear Your Excellency, Mr President, The Chosen One, African Visionary, Bob

Please forgive me for being late in sending you my sincerest birthday wishes. As I'm sure you know South Africa also has its problems with an uppity press and errant judiciary, so this humble blogger has been hard at work showing them the light of inspiration that resides across our northern border. Yes my dear Robert it is a hard path to walk but with your fine example it makes the burden a bit easier to carry (sigh). The other day my good friend Vuyo Mvoko was saying how he was considering moving on to the fertile plains of East Harare. I replied to him earnestly "Go my son and know that all South Africa wishes you well on your journey to the most democratic state in Africa (if not the world!)" Some among us have questioned whether this African Utopia can be real, others can scarcely believe it to be true - fools! But then the chattering classes always try to break down a true visionery with their foul invective and fearmongering. No fear Robert, no fear, we have the facts on our side - the truth shall set them free -

• Under your fine leadership Zimbabwe has a triple digit inflation rate of over 600%;
• Under your exemplary tutelage Zimbabwe has a 70% unemployment rate;
• Under your visionary direction more than two-thirds of Zimbabweans consider food shortages as one of the most important problems they are facing;
• Under your most excellent management 46% of Zimbabweans surveyed said they had gone without food often in the past year;
• Under your inspirational target driven fiscal control 82% of Zimbabweans say they expect living conditions to be "much worse" in the year ahead;
• Under your charismatic, forward looking agenda Zimbabwe was given a world-wide press freedom index Rank of 155 out of 167 countries;
• Under your stupendously wise decision making Zimbabwe received the following fine letter of recommendation from Amnesty International. "Following [the ZANU-PF government's] first major defeat in a national referendum to change the constitution, the government began using its supporters and state agents to pursue a campaign of repression, aimed at eliminating opposition and silencing dissent. Since then, state-sponsored intimidation, arbitrary arrest, torture and attacks on supporters of the political opposition, human rights defenders and the independent media have steadily escalated."

What better way to batter those critics and nay sayers than with a bit of cool, cold logic eh? So to you Robert and all the fine gentleman of the ZANU-PF government, I would like to salute you! Yes, salute you for doing so much in such a short time - truly inspirational. Now of course no birthday message can be complete without giving some sort of gift, a small token of our feelings to you Dear Leader. In this regard I would like to turn things over to the late, the great Johnny Cash in wishing you, Bob, a most Happy Birthday!

Regards.

Comrade Someamongus.  

Back in '96 I made my first visit to Zimbabwe. I was extremely impressed by how good race-relations were and at the general goodwill of all the people there. The feelings of most people I met seemed to be of cautious optimism for the future and an abiding understanding of what had happened in the not too distant past. Over the next few years I met a mixed bag of Zimbo's - black, white, indian, coloured. Although I used to make fun of their little cricket team and atrocious sense of fashion sense (shorts - the 80's kind - were apparently still in style), all of them were a good laugh and great to have round for a few beers. Then of course "the situation" started in Zim and things started going to hell in a handbasket, gradually this same group of characters I had got to know were put under great stress - businesses destroyed, families split-up, racial prejudices inflamed etc etc. It was heartbreaking to see.   

More than anything though, what happened in Zim shook my faith in our newly formed democratic government. Surely, I thought at the time, our government with its foundation built on popular resistance to injustice and a respect for human rights will raise its voice against what is happening? Right? However I was in for a very long wait... The outrages that took place in Zim and continue to this very day are greeted by our government with an insulting silence which doesn't border on but is in my opinion criminal indifference and callousness. What I saw in Zim all those years ago amongst its people was how I hoped SA race relations may develop. With people achnowledging there differences in the past but moving forward together. The fish, as they say, rots from the head down and so it was to be as the power-crazed, tyrant Mugabe lied, cheated, assaulted, murdered, betrayed his way into electoral "triumph", thus ending this period of unity.

I have tried to look at the SA governments stance logically and attempted to decrypt its motivations strategically, but after all these years I have come up with nothing! It hurts to watch, to hear. Sometimes I feel like a child of a policeman, the policeman is proud and strong, but while he struts his stuff in our living room through the walls of our house I can hear the neighbour beating his wife senseless - Dad the policeman does nothing and ignores the screams, the pleading, the crying.... Screams for help are ignored as the TV's volume is turned up and Dad takes care of his own little problems...

Anyway enough of my ramblings, for a great analysis on what is happening in Zim today you should visit this blog. I do occasionally, but not very often because usually it is too painful to read and brings out feeling of both impotence and rage. 

Maybe post-Thabo we can talk?

You can't make this kind of stuff up :

"He may be revered by some and reviled by others but Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's skills as an orator are rarely in doubt, prompting a local record company to put his speeches on tape for "good home entertainment", a newspaper reported on Thursday.

 

The compilation is entitled "Mugabe Speaks" and is to be released by recording firm Gramma Records, the state-controlled Herald said. Minister of Policy Implementation Webster Shamu said the recordings "would not only provide good home entertainment but would be useful to scholars", the paper said. Some of the speeches date back to the late 1970s, when Mugabe and other key nationalists were waging a guerrilla war against the former white minority government of then Rhodesia.

 

Shamu said the record "will assist our children and will also educate people on where we came from and where we are going".

 

(Props to bob.co.za for the photo.)