Cover Story

Cowardly whites who help Mugabe

Boris Johnson

13 April 2002

Boris Johnson on the suffering of Zimbabwe's farmers and the indifference of big business

There is Mugabe's single most important political ally, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who has signally failed to condemn the elections. The South Africans are effectively supplying the bankrupt Mugabe with free electricity. Mbeki could pull the plug on Mugabe overnight, just as John Vorster terminated Ian Smith. And then there is a host of other names which are cursed on the verandas of anti-Mugabe households. These are the white businessmen, who have connived, actively or passively, in keeping the mad old tyrant in power. No doubt Tony O'Reilly, the newspaper-to-baked-beans magnate, has long repented of Mugabe's visit to his Irish schloss.

A less abashed co-operator is John Bredenkamp, a former member of the Rhodesian rugby team and husband to ex-Miss Rhodesia, who was revealed last Sunday to be the 33rd richest man in Britain with a £720 million fortune and a home in Berkshire. Mr Bredenkamp is thought to be close to Mugabe, but especially to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the speaker of the Zimbabwean parliament and Mugabe's heir-apparent. Mr Bredenkamp's mining operations in the Congo benefit greatly from the incursion of Zimbabwean troops, which is a kind of joint-stock venture by Zanu-PF and its business friends. Has Bredenkamp ever raised his voice in protest at anything done by his chums? On the contrary. He is going round offering to buy up some of the most beautiful white farms, on the understanding that he can get the acquisition orders lifted. Then one might mention another Zanu-PF crony, called Billy Rautenbach, who is wanted by Interpol. And then there are the really big players, the ones who should have had the guts to speak out, but who have kept silent. Prime among these is Anglo-American, the giant South African conglomerate, which is now supposed to have a good liberal conscience.

Anglo has vast investments in Zimbabwe. It could easily turn the screws on Mugabe. But when some Zimbabwean human-rights activists went to call on Philip Baum, Anglo's head honcho, to ask for modest financial help, he told them not now, not ever. It is true that Anglo-American has not publicly declared in favour of Mugabe. But it has done nothing to remove him. It could have made it clear, for instance, that its workers would not be penalised for striking in protest at Mugabe's breaches of democracy. It did not.