Zimbabwe’s leading dissident cleric said African efforts to mediate an end to his country’s political crisis are a hopeful step and he urged the international community on Tuesday to support them.
Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo and frequent critic of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union should be given a chance to pressure Mugabe into enacting democratic reforms.
”Let’s give it a try,” Ncube told a news conference in Johannesburg. ”At least the ball is in his [Mugabe’s] court for now.”
SADC has named South African President Thabo Mbeki to seek a solution in Zimbabwe, where critics accuse Mugabe of political and human rights abuses amid an economic crisis that has seen inflation soar to about 4Â 500%.
Once one of the most prosperous countries in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe’s economy is now in ruins with unemployment of 80% — sending ripple effects across the region.
South Africa, itself increasingly nervous about Zimbabwe’s meltdown, has confirmed that mediation is under way but released no public details.
Ncube distanced himself from a British newspaper report this month, which quoted him as saying Britain should invade its former colony to topple Mugabe, saying it was clear that Africa should take the lead in resolving the stand-off.
”Any international intervention should thus build on this regional initiative and should not be carried out separately from it,” Ncube said in a statement.
Ncube spoke at the Johannesburg launch of a new report on political abuses in Zimbabwe following a draconian crackdown on the opposition that began in March as Mugabe launched plans to run for another term as president in 2008 elections.
The report compiled by the Solidarity Peace Trust, a coalition of African church groups, said political repression had increased with members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) increasingly targeted for attack by police, army and intelligence operatives.
”The increase in the number of violations in private homes and public spaces, and the attacks on civic and political leaders at various levels indicate a clear intent to both destroy such structures and spread a general atmosphere of fear throughout the country,” the report said.
The report said state-led violence would have to end if Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections were to be free and fair.
Ncube said despite the crackdown many average Zimbabweans were longing for change, although he added that Mugabe’s government had ”1Â 001 crooked ways to stay in power” and was itself growing desperate as the economy went into freefall.
Asked if the church would have any special role to play in Zimbabwe given Mugabe’s own Catholic faith, Ncube was scathing.
”He is a Catholic, but being a Catholic does not protect you from being a criminal. Hitler was baptised a Catholic,” he said.
Hundreds nabbed in blitz
Meanwhile, Hundreds more business executives and store managers have been arrested in Zimbabwe as part of a crackdown on violations of a government-ordered price freeze, police said Tuesday.
”So far we have arrested a further 468 violators countrywide in the last 24 hours, bringing the total of those arrested to 1Â 768” since the start of the arrest programme, police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka said.
”We have beefed up our crack team. There will be more police in the central business district and other residential areas,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Zimbabwe’s Industry Minister Obert Mpofu ordered businesses on June 26 to halve the prices of their goods and services after accusing them of rampant profiteering and sent crack teams from the security forces to raid shops and check compliance.
Representatives of major retail chains such as Colcom, National Foods Innscor and the local franchise of Spar supermarket and Nandos are among those who have been arrested, although most have since been released after paying heavy fines.
Many manufacturers say the government-set prices mean they cannot cover their costs and have stopped production, leading to widespread shortages of staples such as cooking oil and salt.
But Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu was quoted on Tuesday as saying that the government would not relent on the blitz and dispelled fears of widespread shortages and economic collapse.
”A whole battery of measures are being worked out to improve the supply side of the whole economy,” he told the state-run Herald newspaper.
He said the government was serious about price monitoring and ”there is no going back. Predictions of the collapse of government are unfounded and should be scoffed at.” – Sapa-AFP, Reuters