South African youths call for Mugabe’s resignation

By Violet Gonda
18 April 2006

At least 500 South Africa youths participated in an anti Mugabe demonstration outside the Zimbabwe consulate in Johannesburg on Tuesday. As Zimbabwe marked 26 years of independence the SA Students Congress joined forces with the Youth Communist League (YCL) saying there is no independence for the people of Zimbabwe.

They were in protest against political intolerance, serious violations of human rights, unemployment and economic collapse. YCL National Secretary Buti Manamela said, “Key to our demands was the fact that in the process of rolling out the red carpet, drinking expensive wines, the President of Zimbabwe is doing this at the expense of the people who are going hungry on a daily basis, are unemployed and so forth.”

The youth activist lamented how people who helped free Zimbabwe from its colonisers are the ones who are now oppressing their own people. He said, “ We further say we think the current President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe who has been there for 26 years should resign with immediate effect, because he is sitting on a time bomb that he has created.”

He said there needs to be urgent democratisation in Zimbabwe and an all inclusive constitutional review process which will lead to political and economic stability.

A memorandum which was sent to Zimbabwean officials was also directed to President Thabo Mbeki and all premiers in SA. Manamela said, “If there is anything done by our government on the Zimbabwe situation we are not aware of it. Or if there is anything that has been done it’s definitely not yielding any positive results.”

The youths believe it’s also the responsibility of SADC countries and the African Union to deal with the crisis in Zimbabwe.