Friday 20 June 2008

Africa Finally Wakes Up To Mugabe

It's taken a while but finally fellow African nations have added their authoritative voices to those international observers about the lack of freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe's elections.

Having been intimidated, arrested, beaten, charged with treason, banned from advertising, starved and even killed or having close family members killed the supporters and leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have gained some support from their own Continent. Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe who is part of the monitoring Troika said:

"The first impression we have is that if the elections were to take place today, these elections would never be free and fair... because... the report we received still indicates that violence is escalating throughout Zimbabwe."


With the re-run presidential elections only 7 days away on 27 June that does not bode well that the will of the people from the 29 March election will be strong enough to overcome the will of Robert Mugabe 3 months later. But with the leaders of South Africa, Kenya and Senegal all now expressing concerns about the fairness of next weeks poll is it too little too late.

It may not be too late as the people may still find a way to have their voice heard through the ballot box, and seeing the level of intimidation, starvation and deprivation he is willing to inflict on his own people they may see change through the MDC as their best hope for personal survival no matter what they risk by voting so on the day.

No comments:

Post a Comment