Shame on Mugabe’s stooges

16 May 2007

Rian Malan is appalled that Zimbabwe has been put in charge of Sustainable Development by the UN — and says it is symptomatic of the way in which Mugabe is indulged by foolish go-gooders from New York to South Africa

This year the rains truly failed, and millions face starvation. The response of Mugabe’s government was dumbfounding: it announced last month that it was revoking the licences of every aid group operating in Zimbabwe. Later, the regime relented somewhat: charity would be tolerated provided donors ‘stuck to their core business’ and otherwise behaved themselves. ‘Government will not accept food offers from anyone for political purposes,’ said the information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu. Furthermore, aid would be accepted only if it was ‘not attached with innuendoes of failure’. The reason for this, explained Comrade Ndlovu, is that ‘Zimbabwe deserves the same dignity as any other country’.

As I read this I seethed with outrage. This parasite didn’t even have the manners to say please or thank you. But this is beyond etiquette. In the absence of food aid, a ruler who behaved like Mugabe would long since have been torn limb from limb by his starving subjects. One recalls the demise of Louis XVI, of Mussolini and Ceausescu. Is it not time to abandon Mugabe to a similar fate?

Liberals will think this unfair to innocent people, and they are right: hundreds of thousands might die if the food convoys do not start rolling into Zimbabwe soon. On the other hand, as R.W. Johnson reminds us, armies of the innocent have already perished at Mugabe’s hand, but he continues to thrive. His party recently announced that his reign has been extended to at least 2010. He presumes to dictate terms to charities. Blacks everywhere continue to adulate him, and to insult the West by appointing his despicable government to positions of honour. There is only one way to end to end this farce: cut off the aid and let Mugabe face the music.

No, I am not advocating anything as dire as regime change. The trick would be to tie food aid to acceptance of some very modest preconditions — an end to torture, respect for the rule of law, untrammelled free speech and no interference in the distribution of food aid. In other words, conditions so mild and reasonable that even Mugabe’s most ardent fans cannot dispute their justness. If he rejects them, his disciples will be left in no doubt as to his moral repugnance, and his long-suffering subjects will know exactly who to blame for their hunger pangs. The end, one hopes, should come swiftly.