SW Radio Africa -

TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
29 January, 2009

There now exists no reason why SADC should not be brought before the International Court of Justice for human rights violations.
SADC has, in ways that are more direct than we care to admit, contributed a great deal to the genocide, human rights abuses and the mayhem in Zimbabwe.
Like all other malcontents and undesirable individuals and groups, SADC is one organization that must be banned and whose leadership should be rounded up and dealt with.
The damage SADC caused in Zimbabwe cannot be ignored; they must be made to account for it.

Zimbabwe has proved beyond any doubt that SADC is an organization created by dictators to shield fellow dictators as they massacre innocent African citizens.
SADC is causing the deaths of Zimbabweans while the European Union funds it.
And I really now wonder who is using who because it is just not possible that the world cannot see the evil that SADC is supporting or perpetrating through its inaction and complicity through silence.
It is time to deal with SADC.
Someone is paying SADC to distablise the region and to murder the nation of Zimbabwe.

SADC even had the gall to threaten dropping the Zimbabwe issue altogether and, instead, refer Zimbabwe to the African Union.
After literally “overseeing” the deaths of so many Zimbabweans, SADC admits failure and like all other failures such as Mugabe, they want to force matters.
SADC now wants the Zimbabwean people to pay for its professional ineptitude and bumbling.
Am I to believe that the SADC Secretariat equates the likes of Ian Khama, Rupia Banda and Jakaya Kikwete with the likes of Gaddafi?
SADC must change its name to Murder, Inc. for how can they so efficiently and calmly preside over the deterioration of the region like they are doing?
How they pick their way around so many skulls and skeletons is a mystery never meant to be solved.

It is a matter of public record that Robert Mugabe lost the elections and refused to yield the presidency so as to protect himself and his fellow murderers from facing the law for all the crimes, both economic and political, that they committed.
It is a matter of public record how Mugabe destroyed not only a vibrant economy but abused millions of innocent people, killing thousands of others who were not impressed by his leadership and character.

Today, leaders of neighbouring states are frantically running up and down, pleading for donations from foreign governments so that they can fight the spread of cholera in their countries.
Cholera made in Zimbabwe.
South Africa has now already started reporting several cholera deaths among its citizens.
Cholera imported from Zimbabwe, courtesy of Robert Mugabe’s intransigence.
And yet all of Zimbabwe’s neighbours know how that cholera came into being and how and why it crossed the borders into their countries.

The September 15, 2008 agreement was brokered and signed under the auspices of SADC and SADC was very proud of the ‘achievement’ they had forced on Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC.
They congratulated each other, collected their allowances and left.
But the work, anchored on shaky ground, was not complete yet because it was SADC itself that was supposed to oversee the implementation of that agreement. They did not bother as the agreement failed to take off with Mugabe continuing to kidnap people, arresting opponents and, like a starved bandit, grabbed all in sight for himself. Mugabe refused to obey a SADC sponsored agreement and kept all cabinet posts for himself.

SADC’s response was to apply pressure but on the wrong person, Tsvangirai, as if he was the one holding up the implementation of the faulty SADC agreement.
SADC dropped any pretense at impartiality, accepted Mugabe as Head of State at the expense of the legitimate winner of the elections and ignored the will of the Zimbabwean people.

Early this week, SADC, led by South Africa’s now unconvincing Motlanthe, was pleased with itself as, again, it applied pressure on Tsvangirai instead of Mugabe, an electoral thief who sat calmly among SADC leaders yet he had a case to answer.
SADC, instead of zeroing in on Mugabe and brokering an honest outcome of the Zimbabwean treachery, themselves became keepers of stolen property by voluntarily taking care of Mugabe who had stolen an election and refused to adhere to anything suggested by SADC, not even SADC’s so-called guidelines governing democratic elections.
It became preferable for SADC to ditch its phony gospel of democracy and, instead, oppressed a popular political party that had turned up at SADC’s doorstep, presenting itself before SADC for both protection and assistance.
SADC abused a political child who had crawled into its bosom for assurance, security and backing to safeguard the result of a semi-democratic election supposedly held under SADC’s own guiding principles for ‘democratic elections’.
SADC betrayed Zimbabweans.
SADC is complicit in the abuse and deaths of Zimbabweans.
SADC has stolen democracy from the Zimbabwean people; it is ruining the region and its own reputation.
What state in the region shall ever listen to SADC or take it seriously? What service, if any, can SADC offer to its member states?

What SADC did to Zimbabweans in Pretoria early this week is deplorable and improper.
It was malicious and the fact that it was done by our own leaders is a terrible indictment on the caliber of leaders we have in Africa.
How could a group of Head of States connive to force Zimbabweans to accept a leader they rejected at the polls?
SADC absconded from its responsibilities and, instead of dealing with a situation that they had more or less created and nurtured, forced Tsvangirai and his party to join a unity government when, in effect, it should be Mugabe who had to be brought to heel.

Ironically, Tsvangirai is the one expected to uphold the agreement, altered by Mugabe’s proxies without Tsvangirai’s knowledge, and his refusal to do so made the so-called Head of States angry enough to give him a date by which he ought to be sworn in.
All the genuine issues that the Zimbabwean people were concerned about were ignored by SADC which just told Tsvangirai to be prime minister by February 11th.

Is it not a pity that by refusing to cooperate with both Mugabe and SADC, Tsvangirai and the people of Zimbabwe retain their strength, power and leverage?
Tsvangirai must not capitulate. We are stronger when we refuse to cooperate with Mugabe and this has now become a battle between good and evil but its up to SADC leaders to choose which side they belong.
Tsvangirai must not capitulate and his National Executive meeting tomorrow should never consider working with Mugabe just because malcontents within SADC degreed so.
We have not come this far just so as to betray ourselves at the last hurdle. Besides, Zimbabweans have shown that they can survive without the support of African leaders. Ian Khama, Rupia Banda and Jakaya Kikwete are fine for us for now.
The heart of the matter is that he, Tsvangirai, and the MDC were given a mandate by the people. They must not retreat an inch; they must not listen to SADC.
After all, as events have shown, there is absolutely nothing to be gained from receiving SADC’s backing.
The likes of Pohamba, Kabila and Guebuza who continuously sacrifice our citizens to satisfy their bloodthirsty Mugabe can all go hang.
What path do you think the MDC’s National Executive Committee should take tomorrow?
Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com

I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans is the way it is today, Thursday January 29, 2009.