When rehabilitation has failed…
FreeAfrica (July 11, 2007)
By: Thabo Siziba

Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has for a long time been worshiped, whether directly by his callous party cronies and supporters or ‘simply’ indirectly by all those that stand by and watch him kill without remorse. There are also those who, as in the case of South Africa’s ‘revered’ President, Thabo Mbeki, have just decided to sweep all the dirt under the carpet, where concerns regarding Robert Mugabe and his party are heard. It is such hideous aides and diplomacies that have caused Zimbabwe’s innocent people to suffer.

There is a population in Zimbabwe that has little or no memories
of Independence for their homeland. Mugabe erased those
memories by executing his plan of sectarian genocide.
Details of this apparent genocide, which some have defined as
a perpetration of crimes against humanity, have recently been
resurfacing in different media and platforms as the world tries to
comprehend and tackle the challenges of Zimbabwe’s regime –
the past and the present. Classic examples of such efforts to
rebuke Mugabe and his regime have included the act of stripping
Robert Mugabe of an honorary degree by a Scottish university,
the Edinburgh University, which it awarded him 23 years ago.
Michigan State University and the University of Massachusetts
have also considered rescinding their honorary degrees in light
of human rights violations in Zimbabwe. The Commonwealth
also gave Zimbabwe a yearlong suspension from its membership,
in March 2002. When the suspension was not lifted a year later,
Mugabe and his criminal enterprise decided, without a mandate
from the people, they would go ahead and terminate the country’s
membership with the group of nations. A letter was sent by the
then ‘Minister Of Foreign Affairs’ to Commonwealth Secretary-
General Don McKinnon, which indicated that Zimbabwe
was withdrawing from the commonwealth membership with
effect from December 7, 2003. Current attempts by various
groups and personalities, including governmental bodies are
under way in different parts of the world to have Mugabe and
his regime indicted for international crimes that include
genocide and crimes against humanity. CLICK HERE for
a case in point.

While life may appear uncertain for the people of Zimbabwe,
with their sense of identity and existance appearing to be so
much at risk, perhaps as Ncube says, we have not yet hit bottom
rock for the powers be to consider doing the inevitable –
just to save the lives of millions. It is unfortunate indeed that the
world will only act when there is a river of blood flowing through
the streets, as did happen during the Rwanda genocide. Zimbabwe has already been through an era of genocide that undoubtedly demanded
world intervention and a reprimand of Zimbabwe’s Mugabe and
his aides. This was the period between 1982 and 1987 when
he went on a rampage to kill more than 20 000 civilians
identified as belonging to the Ndebele ethnic group, and also
displaced and caused to disappear hundreds of thousands of
people, some whose families are still searching for them even
to this day. A case in point of such ignorance by world bodies
is revealed in the following excerpt from a BBC news interview
of March 10, 2002, titled “THE PRICE OF SILENCE” :

Sir Martin Ewans – a representative
of Britain and indeed a self-proclaimed political ally of Mugabe during the Gukurahundi blood bath. His instructions were to look the opposite direction.

[Panorama - Mugabe: The Price of Silence
(BBC ONE, 10.15pm, Sunday 10 March) reveals that nearly 20 years ago Britain knew about crimes against humanity committed by Robert Mugabe but failed to act decisively to try and stop them.

In 1983 and 1984 a campaign by Mugabe’s government
to crush political opposition in Matabeleland led to the
slaughter of thousands of civilians with thousands more
beaten and tortured.

Despite a continuing and significant interest in Zimbabwe
after independence in 1980, Britain did not confront
Mr. Mugabe for these crimes, and continued to do
business with his most ruthless associate, Perence Shiri,
the military commander behind the atrocities.
British diplomats and politicians who knew civilians in
Matabeleland were being massacred tell Panorama why
they did not do more to try to prevent the slaughter.
Britain’s High Commissioner at the time, Sir Martin Ewans,
says that his instructions from London at the time were to
"steer clear of it" when speaking to Robert Mugabe.
He tells Panorama: "I think this Matabeleland is a side issue,
the real issues were much bigger... We were extremely
interested that Zimbabwe should be a success story, and we
were doing our best to help Mugabe and his people bring
that about."]

A well renouned 17th century author once wrote: “ That there
are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by
keeping up the quarrels of nations, is as shocking as it is true:
but when those who are concerned in the government of a
country make it their study to sow discord, and cultivate
prejudices between nations, it becomes the more
unpardonable.”

Some people may ask, “but why are Zimbabweans themselves
seemingly so tame?”. The answer to this question may
probably not be as simple as it is to ask the question. Thomas
Paine says in his book, Rights of Man: “For a nation to love
liberty, it is sufficient that she knows it: and to be free, it is
sufficient that she wills it”. The Zimbabwean government
and its people, under the despotism of Mugabe and his regime,
have never known real independence or democracy. The entire
country has for the past 27 years of assumed independence
been subjected to manipulated democracy – “a kind of
democracy that does not have the complicated bits and pieces
of freedom”. Mugabe’s greed for immortal power and the
brutal methods he has employed over the years to degenerate
people’s freedoms including the ways in which they think
has led Zimbabwe to be a country of very submissive people.
Yes! Some people may jump to say this is probably not
a true statement, but if you ask yourself why a country
with almost half its entire population fled to the rescue of
other countries cannot, in exile, gather the momentum it
would take to bring down a criminal empire that now only
controls so little that is left of this shattered homeland;
perhaps a step back in thought would bring one to reality.
World statistics indicate that an estimated population of
almost 3million Zimbabweans now lives in South Africa,
well over 1million live in the United Kingdom, over a
hundred thousand in Canada, United States and Australia.
Botswana, Zambia and even Mozambique have also
been hardest hit by the influx of Zimbabweans in their
thousands, and a million or more are scattered elsewhere
around the world. Strictly speaking, this huge body of
foreign strength amongst Zimbabweans has to be capable
of coordinating the kind of strength and power that it took
to bring down the reign of Ian Smith in his Rhodesia.
At hat time, during the 1970s, foreign governments
provided all sorts of support toward Zimbabwe’s freedom
as they thought it would be. Perhaps the difference
between present day struggle for freedom and that of
those days is the passion and the spirit that kept the
hype of such a revolutionary drive. Robert Mugabe and
his regime custom-designed and tailored, for their own
selfish and brutal earnings, the way in which preceding
generations of Zimbabwe after independence would think.
They used the very passion and spirit that the people
fought with against Ian Smith’s regime, to instill fear,
mistrust and obedience amongst Zimbabweans.
Brainwashing people with worthless ‘patriotic’ propaganda,
but as worthless as it was, the tactics did work. Generation
after generation of Zimbabwe’s people now seem to grow
less and less interested in politics as a result of this betrayal
and deceit by Mugabe and his cronies, most of whom
together with Mugabe himself, have been falsely revered
as pioneers of Zimbabwe’s independence and black
empowerment. It is therefore not surprising today that as
I walk the streets and attend social events I have met fellow
countrymen who whole-heartedly deny their identity as
Zimbabweans. I have heard people claim to be South African
and other nationalities, just to try and attain a sense of respect
and also to relieve oneself of some responsibility or even due
explanation to the realities of Zimbabwe. For some people
though, such denial is borne with history, and Mugabe’s
emphasis to it during his “divide and rule” reign of
terror system. It is very difficult for Zimbabweans to think
outside of that box that Mugabe has enclosed their minds.
The box that now only allows for a “pay as you go” kind
of freedom. In most cases thoughts are about what the next
meal will be and whether or not next of kin are still alive
and well, sending enough money home is a major
preoccupation for those in the diaspora and chasing after
daily fluctuations in currency value and inflation for those
still at home in Zimbabwe. Political talk among
Zimbabweans, even for those in the diaspora is done with
extreme caution and a constant check over one’s shoulder.
Recently while at a social gathering somewhere in Toronto,
I was with a group of men discussing, as usually is the topic,
the situation back in our homeland, when one of our fellow
friends in the gathering sent chills down our spines by
informing us that when he was told to go and get a validation
of his Zimbabwe Drivers’ Licence from the Zimbabwean
Embassy if he wanted it to be considered by Canada’s
transport ministry for his new application for a Canadian
Drivers’ License, he made an enquiry phone call to the
Embassy and was answered by a seemingly very arrogant
male who asked him to identify himself and after our friend
identified himself, the male from the Embassy made a
remark to him in Shona, indicating that he is surprised
that the embassy has no record or prior knowledge of his
(our friend) existence in Canada, when in actual fact they
know all the noisy makers around. The Embassy
administrator then went on to commend our friend for his
possible patriotism proven by his absence from their
surveillance. It is these tactics of instilling fear that our
people of Zimbabwe have to bear and most a times;
victims suffer such abuse in silence and without recourse.
The fear within is so severely embedded that for the
greater part of the population of Zimbabwe, the victims
and survivors affected, this fear within has now become
such a part of our being that it would not, in the near future
be a catalyst of a pro-democracy rebellion. A few potential
leaders that have attempted to show some strength and
courage in battling the regime have ended in vain due to
the deeply embedded fear and divisions that even they
have refused to address – particularly the tribal divisions
that so much keep Mugabe afloat to this day.

Zimbabwe’s freedom train has not yet found a driver.
A driver with passion and spirit. A driver with a vision
for the future as well as knowledge and acknowledgement
of the past. A driver that will not deny justice for past
injustices and a driver that will not be afraid to mention
and discuss those past injustices. Zimbabwe’s current
‘pro-democracy’ leaders have been overcome by greed
and ‘big tent politics’. Now is not a time for personalized
politics in Zimbabwe. Mugabe and his gang should
no-longer be the subject and platforms in campaigns.
Such emphasis on the persons themselves has to a large
extent gone on to blind us of the real issues to deal with.
society that has for the past three decades been littered
with inhumane principles and customs that people today
find to be a normal part of their lives. It is said that when
despotism has established itsself for ages in a country,
it is not in the King or the States Man that it resides,
but rather, it becomes a standard of practice everywhere.
Offices, schools, universities etc. inherit that despotism,
founded upon custom and usage. Mugabe and his cronies
have already defined their destiny in the future and
wasting time fighting them individually is yet another
ploy of time wasting. The principles and customs of our
society as Zimbabweans need a major focus. Eliminating
greed, corruption, poverty and oppression in all its forms.
We cannot execute these duties by involving the very
criminals that have created the wrongs. What the future
leadership of Zimbabwe probably should do is to draw
parallels between the Mugabe regime as an unrepentable
force of injustice, and also the general population and
its future leaders that desire change and does not
recognize nor negotiate with serial convicts.
This is a stand that has been failed by many of
Zimbabwe’s up and rising oppositions who while in the
mists of denying the legitimacy of the Mugabe regime,
go on to legitimize it through negotiations and round-table
meetings of convenience whenever the need arises.
Mugabe and his cronies cannot be rehabilitated, and this
is a fact that needs to be taken and accepted by the world
at large. Once Mugabe’s regime is truly elianated and the
proper parallels are drawn, the road to true democracy
would be much visible. Simply put, if the entire population
and the outside world with it could boycott the Zimbabwe
regime as a recognized entity governing Zimbabwe, that
regime would not have much to stand on. Even its allies
such as South Africa and a few other sleeping ‘dogs’ in
the African continent would rise up to the challenge of
being recorded on the brighter side of history.