Only fellow Africans, not the West, have the moral authority to speak out on Zimbabwe, a leader of a faction of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said in Johannesburg on Friday.
”We appreciate the support from Western powers but the double standards of the West undermine our struggle … The only ones who have the moral authority to speak out on Zimbabwe are Africans,” said Arthur Mutambara.
He was addressing a seminar on the Zimbabwean crisis organised by the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Mutambara illustrated the ”double standards” of the West by saying former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden were hated by the West but had been ”created” by them.
But he repeated that the MDC appreciated support from Western powers.
”The only people who have a legitimate role to talk about Zimbabwe are Africans … Mugabe is a despot, a dictator, brutalising blacks, brutalising whites, brutalising Africans.”
Brian Raftopolous, a Zimbabwean academic now living in Cape Town, also addressed the seminar, saying: ”We need accountable sovereignty in this region where we all account for each other … President Thabo Mbeki now has an opening [to intervene]. This opportunity must not be missed.”
On South Africa’s ”quiet diplomacy” in dealing with its volatile neighbour, Mutambara said his movement respected the country’s right to take the position it had.
”We respect the rights of the South African government … we leave the condemnation of the government to South Africans. We do not think it is helpful or effective for us to condemn.”
Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said South Africa’s strategy was failing and the government should join other African countries in condemning ”the atrocities causing pain and suffering in Zimbabwe”.
”The strategy is failing. Other strategies on what we can do practically must be looked at,” he said.
Vavi repeated his call for unity among opposition groups in Zimbabwe.
”It is a great tragedy that we still have two factions of the MDC,” he said. ”One of the basic lessons is that without unity we cannot get anywhere.”
But Mutambara said the Zimbabwean opposition was ”capable of working in the trenches together to bring about change”.
”Many are under the illusion that there is division in the opposition movement in Zimbabwe, but the past two weeks have shown the world that our core aim is to liberate our country … we stand
a ghost of a chance as individuals,” he said.
Zimbabwe, once hailed as the bread basket of Southern Africa, is on the verge of economic collapse with the highest inflation in the world — over 1 700% annually, shortages of basic commodities and fuel and an 80% unemployment rate.
The Zanu-PF ruling government has become increasingly intolerant of dissent, a situation that reached boiling point as police crushed a mass prayer meeting on March 11, causing an international outcry. — Sapa