Speak up on Zim, Mr Mbeki

by Editor · March 17, 2004

The renewed commitment by churches in Zimbabwe and South Africa to contribute to a resolution to the crisis in Zimbabwe is a welcome sign of progress.

The churches in Zimbabwe have not always stood united against the atrocities committed by the Mugabe regime and its supporters. Even the Catholic bishops of Zimbabwe have been divided, with Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo effectively remaining a solitary episcopal voice for justice.

This division has tied the hands of the Southern African bishops, who have acceded to a request by their Zimbabwean counterparts not to comment on Zimbabwe�s political strife.

This request, however, does not extend to a critique of the South African government�s response to the crisis. Thus, the Southern African bishops have increasingly voiced their frustration with President Thabo Mbeki�s evidently futile policy of “quiet diplomacy”.

Mr Mbeki�s persistence in this policy is puzzling. Surely the notion that Mr Mugabe misled the South African government over the non-existent talks with the opposition MDC must have served as confirmation, even to the most fanciful apologists, of the Zanu-PF leader�s lack of integrity.

South Africa�s refusal to even acknowledge the documented atrocities committed by the Mugabe regime and its militias�especially the Green Bombers, on whom we reported last October�suggests that it will not even consider alternatives to “quiet diplomacy”.

The government has not even found cause to simply rebuke Mr Mugabe for presiding over human rights abuses, many of which exceed those of the apartheid regime in brutality.

It is fair to say that the victims of torture at the hands of Mr Mugabe�s militias�which include mutilation, systematic rape ans even murder�have no friend in South Africa�s goverernment.

Ironically, the victims of this persecution are as likely to have supported the struggle against apartheid as those who support the Mugabe regime.

In its unwillingness to confront Mr Mugabe, the Mbeki government is as complicit in sustaining a depraved regime as Margaret Thatcher’s government was in abetting the apartheid regime.

As a result, South Africa risks relinquishing its credibility as an international agent for peace and justice.

This year South Africa celebrates a decade of full democracy. It is not a time when it should be seen as acquiescing with the surrender of freedom in Zimbabwe.

Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg has called for “targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime”.

This echoes a call made by this newspaper in August 2001, when we wrote: “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.”

Crucially, such targeted sanctions�which already have been adopted by several members of the international community�must be applied by South Africa especially.

As Zimbabwe prepares for parliamentary elections in 2005, the proper conditions for a free and fair campaign must be created. The churches in South Africa and Zimbabwe have pledged their assistance. Now South Africa�s government must take the lead.