Telling Mugabe To 'Shut Up' Only Feeds The Fire
Mnangagwa Leading The Race To Succeed Mugabe
Only Mugabe-ites Can Be "National Heroes"
Mugabe - The 30 Year Slide From Liberator To Dictator
Mugabe Uses Sister's Funeral To Swing At The West
The Mugabe Tsunami
Finally! Finally an African leader has had the courage to say something in public to Mugabe...
"Zambian President Rupiah Banda told Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe to 'shut up' during a heated SADC Troika Summit held in Livingstone, Zambia last week. The 87 year old ZANU PF leader was attempting to pile on the excuses for his violent crackdown back home but Banda told him he was talking 'nonsense'.
Fresh from the humiliation of his ZANU PF party losing the election for the much coveted Speaker of Parliament post, Mugabe arrived in Zambia expecting the usual softly soft approach from his peers in the SADC grouping. But even his closest ally, South African President Jacob Zuma, was uncompromising.
A regional diplomatic offensive by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai just shortly before the summit seemed to have paid dividends. Tsvangirai travelled to and met the leaders of Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa and Namibia respectively, briefing them on Mugabe’s crackdown."
Mugabe's answer to this sort of thing, is just to remove Zimbabwe as a member of the institution - and then will be crying loud and plenty about how the world does not want to help him.
Mugabe is an objectionable character who feels nothing at the criticism he receives. Given that he is criticised every day, I suppose he is becoming used to it. His answer to everything is that Zimbabwe is a sovereign country and no one can tell him to do anything.
Meanwhile, Mugabe's party and all of the extensions thereof, subject Zimbabwe's population to total humiliation, pain and suffering.
"During the summit in Livingstone, Zuma and other leaders cornered Mugabe over his refusal to implement sections of his political agreement with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The summit also took place just days after Zuma held a private meeting with Tsvangirai at his Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, home.
One diplomat told a Zimbabwean publication Nehanda Radio that SADC leaders showed their impatience with Mugabe’s antics and were demanding that he abide by their decisions. It was little wonder after the summit SADC issued a strongly worded statement expressing its impatience with the impasse in Zimbabwe.
"The summit noted with grave concern the polarisation of the political environment as characterized by, inter alia, resurgence of violence, arrest and intimidation in Zimbabwe," the statement said."
Sadly, a 'strongly worded' statement issued by SADC does nothing for the people of Zimbabwe.
Being told to 'shut up' will only anger Mugabe, and he will take the time now to work even harder on the intimidation and harassment of anyone who stands in his way - including the MDC chief, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe has no care for 'democracy', and will use his forces to ensure that ZANU PF will 'win', just like they did in 2008 – even though the popular mandate suggests otherwise. Mugabe refuses to give up power, has no intention of going quietly, and will be absolutely sure that before he dies, many other Zimbabweans, be they MDC activists or innocent members of society die in the environment that he descrobes as having been caused by the 'illegal economic sanctions' in place against Zimbabwe.
Telling Mugabe to 'shut up' only stiffens his resolve to never concede power to anyone...
Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man
