The pretense by the Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe that it is still interested in a genuine settlement of its standoff with the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai, the almost certain outright majority victor in the country’s presidential election way back in March, has been further exposed by an extraordinary move. Visas have been refused to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter and the wife of Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, who had sought jointly to visit Zimbabwe to see if they could help resolve the conflict. Mugabe and Tsvangirai have yet to form a unity government, despite several failed attempts by regional leaders to force the implementation of a Sept. 15 accord.
This snub to these senior statesmen, known as The Elders, demonstrates that Mugabe and his people believe the visitors would have nothing to say that they want to hear. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s economy continues to go down the drain and now, according to the World Health Organization, cholera has broken out with at least 300 people already dead and 6,000 infected. The likely cause, according to the WHO, is the collapse of unfixed urban sanitation and water treatment systems. Western nations have said they are ready to release hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, but not while Mugabe retains his sole grip on power.
It is hard to believe how ordinary Zimbabweans, including many who once supported ZANU-PF and its former freedom fighter hero Mugabe, can put up with the collapse of virtually everything in their country from the currency to the health system.
Had Annan and his fellow elders been permitted entry, they might perhaps, by bringing new minds to the challenge, have suggested a solution under which Mugabe and his beleaguered core of supporters would relinquish a significant part of their power but retain their wealth along with their freedom and security. The key argument would undoubtedly have been, the longer they hang on, the harder it will become for them to escape with any of these. Zimbabweans may be rivaling the Russians in terms of sheer, dogged patience but this economic and social catastrophe cannot go on forever.
The reality is that while the Mugabe regime may still hold the steering wheel, it is now barely connected to a country that is running downhill and no longer has much in the way of brakes.
It is interesting that Mugabe has not used his customary eloquence to denounce the very idea of retired statesmen readying to jet to wherever there is conflict in the expectation of helping solve it.
Mugabe might have mocked The Elders concept by asking how the shortly-to-be-retired George W. Bush could hope to contribute anything at all by way of wisdom to any of the conflicts this elite body seeks to address. Indeed Bush and Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair have been among the prime sources of conflict in the opening years of this century. But maybe Zimbabwe’s plunge into chaos has now finally robbed Mugabe of his puckish sense of humor.
