Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should account for the annihilation of 20 000 people during Operation Gukurahundi in Matebeleland in the early 1980s, says the writer. Picture: AP Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should account for the annihilation of 20 000 people during Operation Gukurahundi in Matebeleland in the early 1980s, says the writer. Picture: AP
This week, an asset freeze and travel ban against 21 Zimbabweans on an EU blacklist was due to be lifted after President Robert Mugabe announced a constitutional referendum for next month and elections in July. However, Mugabe still remains on the list.
No doubt Mugabe is a celebrated freedom fighter, but he is also the one who plunged Zimbabwe into crisis after he destroyed the agriculture-based economy using a poorly thought-out land redistribution strategy.
Mugabe’s election announcement is an indication that he has perhaps thought about the fact that the time for revolutions in Africa has come. The Arab Spring in north Africa is the greatest moment in the global struggle for human freedom since 1989, when the Soviet Union and its satellite states across eastern Europe fell. And it’s appropriate that Mugabe should be taking stock of the situation.
Mugabe stole the elections in 2000, 2002 and 2005. Each time he was assisted by the complicity of various forces. It seems clear that the tyrant is losing support. In South Africa, from the time of former president Thabo Mbeki, trade unions and other civil society formations rejected Mugabe. And this rejection goes far beyond just civil society. In South Africa, when we think of Zimbabwe in the context of international political restlessness, we are confronted by three urgent questions.
The first is how we offer solidarity to Zimbabwean refugees. The periodic attacks on Zimbabweans by South Africans and the reaction by our police need to be urgently opposed. We need to recall the solidarity shown to South Africans exiled in other countries and demonstrate basic human decency. Change can come to Zimbabwe soon, and in the potentially uneasy days, South Africa will need to offer immense support to Zimbabwean refugees.
The second question that we need to consider is the nature of the flaw in some of our leaders that has allowed them to become complicit with tyranny.
Our Struggle was supported by governments and civil society around the world. One expects our government to take a similarly activist position towards tyranny in other countries. This means we need to rethink how we frame “constructive engagement”.
The third question we must ponder is what went wrong in Zimbabwe. The argument that Mugabe was a good revolutionary leader holds no water. Revisionist Zimbabwean historians have pointed to ruthless abuses during the liberation struggle. Operation Gukurahundi, the ethnic cleansing of the Ndebele in Matabeleland in the 1980s, in which 20 000 people were annihilated, was a crime against humanity that should be enough to ensure that Mugabe stand trial at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
It is clear that the political culture of Zanu-PF was authoritarian and rapacious long before the fiasco of recent years. Zimbabwe has been ruled by a ruthless and predatory elite from the beginning. The seeds of the later crimes, the plunder of the Congo and the suppression of internal opposition were planted earlier on.
This means it is essential to think holistically. Just because a man and a movement are opposed to one form of tyranny does not mean they are opposed to tyranny. There is a difference between using democracy to come to power and being democratic. A democrat is not defined as a person who came to power by democracy.A democrat is defined as a person who welcomes debate and dissent. By this definition it is clear that Zimbabwe has never been a democracy.
Any signs of Zanufication in any society are a challenge we must all take up. Again, the lessons from north Africa teach us that a people cannot be oppressed forever. As South Africans, when we think of Zimbabwe we need to reflect on the important role we must play in promoting transformation there.
We are reminded by Zimbabwean media entrepreneur Trevor Ncube that the Arab Spring has restored collective faith in people power, and there are signs that the Zanu-PF is rattled.
l Imraan Buccus is a research fellow in the School of Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and academic director of a university study abroad programme on political transformation.