SADC Quiet On ANC Support Of Mugabe

This ruling aside, what is being done to enforce the Supreme Court order that compels Zuma's administration to hand over a report on the 2002 Zimbabwean election to a South African newspaper?

Now bring this latest ruling into play and it is more than apparent that the ANC is a quiet supporter of Mugabe... and his unruly party.

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"In stunning relevations that directly implicates former South African President Thabo Mbeki on the Zimbabwean crisis, a South Gauteng High Court judgement has revealed 'unlawfully manipulating' of news items on Zimbabwe's 2005 elections and blacklisting certain commentators pereived to be anti-Robert Mugabe.

Yesterday, a High court judge in Johannesburg ruled that the SABC was guilty of manipulating the news in 2005 and 2006, in a ruling that will boost criticism of the way the South African public broadcaster covers politics and cranked up the propaganda for Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

Judge Neels Claassen ruled in the South Gauteng High Court that there had been widespread manipulation of news under the SABC’s former head of news, Snuki Zikalala, and that he had 'dishonestly tried to cover up this manipulation'."

For a few years, I have questioned the alacrity of SADC in appointing first Thabo Mbeki and now Jacob Zuma to oversee the negotiations between ZANU PF and the two MDC formations that together make-up the shaky coalition that currently 'rules' Zimbabwe.

"With political interference and the hand of President Jacob Zuma clear in the appointment of Phil Molefe as Mr Zikalala’s replacement, Judge Claassen’s remarks are yet another reminder of how easily the SABC can be used as a political weapon by the government of the day.

Court affidavits by former SABC head of radio news Pippa Green and John Perlman, a former presenter on SAfm, documented interference by Mr Zikalala in day-to-day operations at the SABC.

Mr Zikalala went to Zimbabwe for the 2005 elections to negotiate the terms of SABC’s coverage with Robert Mugbe's henchmen, contrary to normal procedure.

When he came back, he warned reporters at a meeting the day after the elections he would 'take action' against Ms Green and any reporter who expressed an 'opinion' on Zimbabwe.

The judgement relates to Mr Zikalala’s 2006 blacklisting of analysts critical of former president Thabo Mbeki, and the SABC’s coverage of elections in Zimbabwe in 2005.

The ruling comes on the back of a recent finding by a London based African think-tank Africa Confidential which implicated Thabo Mbeki in the Zimbabwe vote rigging that kept Robert Mugabe in power after losing first round presidential polls in 2008."

So we have South African influence in Zimbabwe in 2002, 2005 and and 2008. And no one does a thing about it - mainly because all these rulings do is confirm what we suspected all along.

Will the publication of the rulings change the lie of the land? I don't think so...

"According to London-based think-tank Africa Confidential, former opposition MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai 'clearly beat Mugabe' in the first round of voting in March 2008 but was denied power after a plan to steal some of his votes allegedly hatched by ZANU PF military junta in connivance with South African officials.

"Taken by surprise, ZANU PF delayed announcing the results for six weeks while it concocted a strategy for clinging to power (possibly with South African connivance)," the think-tank said last week. The official results published by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in May 2008 showed that Mugabe had lost the first round of elections to Tsvangirai but by a narrow margin.

ZANU PF bullyboys were then unleashed for the second-round run-off held in June of the same year and Mugabe claimed a dubious victory after Tsvangirai was forced to quit the race. A brutal campaign of violence led by Zimbabwe’s military out to reverse Mugabe’s shock first round defeat left at least 200 MDC-T supporters dead.”

Has the taking of the ballot boxes to an unknown place for six weeks by ZANU PF ever been questioned by SADC? Has the violence that ensued after the first round of the Presidential election in 2008 ever been questioned by SADC?

So why, if SADC is so squeaky clean, are they allowed to appoint biased mediators to oversee the Zimbabwean Global Political Agreement when those mediators are supporters of one of the parties involved in the negotiations?

Why have SADC kept quiet about the whole Zimbabwean mess?

Are they really that afraid of Mugabe – and all his allies?

And yet SADC maintains that African problems should be sorted by Africans - what if they are unable to resolve those problems?

Robb WJ Ellis

The Bearded Man