Zimbabwe’s equal opportunity tyranny
As Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF government continue to add one glum chapter after another to the distressing tale that is Zimbabwe’s history, the world seems at a loss as to how that country might be prodded towards a happy ending.
The irony of how ingeniously Mr Mugabe has adapted and refined the textbook of apartheid repression will not be lost on South Africans. Apart from the usual drill–intimidation and violence, arbitrary harassment and humiliation, attacks on the independent press, and so on–Mr Mugabe appears to use external opposition to his policies as a means to inflame his supporters.
Meanwhile, he patently aims to goad his opponents into committing acts of violence to serve him with a pretext to declare a state of emergency. This seems to be the strategy behind the recent brutalities, obviously state-sanctioned, directed at the white farmers of Chinhoyi, and the mocking government rhetoric that accompanied the outrage.
At the same time it must be noted that Mr Mugabe’s government is an equal opportunity tyranny. Attacks on whites serve merely as one strategy among many. Zanu-PF’s policy is to snuff out any electoral threat by whatever means thought necessary. To that end, opponents of all races have been at the receiving end of Mr Mugabe’s long stick.
Mr Mugabe and his party appear to be motivated mainly by the privileges that flow from retaining power. Zimbabwe’s government has by its actions shown that it cares little about the disintegration of the country’s economy, much less about how that affects neighbouring states. The prospect of economic sanctions, often mooted as one method to curb the government’s excesses, appears to be immaterial to men whose assets are likely to be distributed among foreign bank accounts, real estate and moveable property.
Mr Mugabe and his functionaries will not be brought to their senses unless their self-interest is compromised. This may entail signals by the international community that Zanu-PF functionaries and their families will not be issued with foreign travel visas, that foreign assets held by government ministers will be frozen or seized, and that human rights abusers will be subject to persecution in international courts.
The international community must have the political will to apply such pressure. This requires the support of South Africa’s government, which has finally accepted the failure of its efforts at quiet diplomacy. The question is whether the world leaders can muster this political will.
In absence of any secular answers, it is particularly lamentable that Mr Mugabe seems to have abandoned the solid Catholic faith he doubtlessly learned at the knees of his devout mother. Maybe it is indeed, as some have said, only God who can help Zimbabwe now.
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