The Plot Unravels

How could British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have conceivably been so incautious as to let that very particular cat claw its way out of the bag he held behind his back? To stand, barefaced before the UN Security council and denounce Robert Mugabe for "stealing" Zimbabwe's elections. Unheard of. Where lies a sense of balance, of probity, of the kind of forbearance that South Africa's Thabo Mbeki has continually called for?

Should the assembly of world nations, after all, believe the unconsidered statement of the head of the former imperialist colonial power that had so long impoverished the spirit of India and Africa? What an insult to the high-minded authority of the ruling elite in Zimbabwe and their hallowed freedom fighter. There's a price to pay for such gratuitous insults. And the approximately 200 white commercial farmers left in the country are now paying it.

Of course the onslaught of the white land-owners by Robert Mugabe's thuggish loyalists more or less pre-dated Britain's disdainful dismissal of President Mugabe's popularly-acclaimed electoral win. But still, it will stand as a lesson to him and to all others of his colonial-minded ilk; they have the responsibility of having injured the future prospects of Zimbabwe's remaining whites; those now evicted from their properties and their homes. Along with the beatings and worse meted out to those black farm workers loyal to their benighted white masters.

Agricultural fields torn up, cattle and sheep slaughtered. That'll teach him, won't it, to meddle where his opinion is neither invited nor required. It's the West, matter of fact, that is wholesale responsible for encouraging that upstart Morgan Tsvangirai to commit treason against his country; conspiring together to engineer the downfall of the rightfully elected Prime Minister of the country. No coincidence that treason remains a capital offence in Zimbabwe. So, off with his head.

Critical, one would say of the situation. And, finally, the South African Cabinet, back to the wall of international opinion has finally described the situation as "dire". Additional delays in the release of the vote tally are considered unacceptable, in the view of the European Commission. "Clearly the publication of the results is needed and is needed now." In response to which Zimbabwe's government newspaper has revealed "Tsvangirai's bid for U.K. military intervention exposed".

Claiming that opposition leader and clear front-runner in the disputed vote, Morgan Tsvangirai plans to do violence to his country in his determination to succeed to the prime ministership. The newspaper story lays claim to knowledge that Mr. Tsvangirai's now-arrested helicopter pilot has been linked to MI6, and was engaged in flying weapons into the country. How many weapons can be loaded onto a helicopter, one wonders. And how likely is it that the man who insists on a peaceful democratic turn-over in government would ship weapons to arm his alliance?

On the other hand, there is the reality for all to see, of a Chinese ship docking outside Durban, on its way to transiting its cargo, 77 tonnes of weaponry bought and paid for by the Government of Zimbabwe, 3 days post-election. Whose people are starving, hugely unemployed, battling the scourges of dread diseases, desperately looking for surcease from their hellish existence. A spokesman for the South African government announced that, with administrative documents in order, South African will not intervene to prevent the transport of those weapons through its territory to Zimbabwe.

The three million rounds of ammunitions for small arms and AK-47s, 3,500 mortars and launchers, the 1,500 rockets for rocket-propelled grenades are good to go. Ordered hastily, from good friend and regime supporter China, who would sell any goods for any purpose to any disturbed psychopath, established government figure or rogue military structure. Funny thing though, it seems that the ordinary people of South African don't quite agree with their government in this critical issue.

The port stevedores have been refusing to unload the cargo. They will not lend themselves to the further victimization of their fellow Africans, even if their leaders don't mind doing just that. For the South African Conventional Arms Control Committee has granted approval of the weapons transit. As far as they're concerned, it's a legitimate business transaction having nothing to do with South Africa: "If the buyer is the Zimbabwean sovereign government and the seller is the Chinese sovereign government, South Africa has nothing to do with that."

Thus said South African government official Sydney Mufamadi, just incidentally the official heading the mediating team relating to the crisis in Zimbabwe. Crisis? What crisis?