1. I am glad of the greatly increased and increasingly thoughtful coverage of Zimbabwe in South Africa over the past fortnight because this means we can today move straight into trying to address some of the concerns of Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad who says that the South African Government is not ignoring events in Zimbabwe, but is at a loss as to what to do.

"We are trying to find a solution, but the problem is that we have done everything we possibly can. We can't work out what else is expected of us."
Sunday Times, June 26 2005.

2. Background. Firstly, it would be helpful to clear up some confusion which persists regarding the background of the Zanu (PF), Robert Mugabe regime. Just last December, for example, the ANC expressed its unequivocal support for Zanu (PF) through former deputy secretary-general Henry Makgothi at Zanu (PF)'s fourth congress when he said, reading from a prepared statement: "Our national executive of the ANC and the people of South Africa are confident that Zanu (PF), as a party of revolution, will continue to play a leading role to assert the political and economic independence of Zimbabwe. As the ANC we take pride in the bilateral relations that we have forged over the years of the struggle …The ANC wishes to reiterate our firm support for the people of Zimbabwe under the leadership of Zanu (PF)." What was being blinked at here was the fact that the bilateral relations forged during those years of struggle had been between the ANC and ZAPU, under the leadership of Joshua Nkomo, while ZANU, under the leadership of Robert Mugabe had stood with PAC, not ANC, lonely and rejected on the outskirts of the OAU. Some also have missed the significance of the progression of events since 1980 in Zimbabwe which went, very briefly, as follows.

A. 1980 elections where Zanu (PF) kept large numbers of their fighters out of the Assembly Points in order to ensure victory through intimidation before people even got to the polls for Zimbabwe's first ever elections.

B. From those elections onwards the emasculation of Zapu's military wing, ZIPRA, under the Minister of Defence R. G. Mugabe which went hand in hand with

C. The crushing of ZAPU. This repression escalated significantly from the beginning of 1982 with treason charges being brought against the two top commanders of ZIPRA, Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa and other top military men and Zapu politicians. The same tactics were used later against Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC.

D. The deployment of the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade into sections of Matabeleland and the Midlands where, apart from a general campaign of terror, they were furnished with lists of people in Zapu structures to kill. As Robert Mugabe said at the passing out parade of the Gukuruhundi Brigade December 1982, "The knowledge you have acquired will make you work with the people, plough and reconstruct. These are the aims you should keep in yourself". Plough and reconstruct.

E. The 1985 elections which, although won by Zanu (PF), did not give Mugabe a sufficient number of seats to change the constitution as he wished. To punish those who voted against him he broadcast in Shona urging his followers to go and rip the weeds from their gardens and stump their fields which some of them did, burning houses and businesses of perceived opponents and leaving over 2000 homeless in Matabeleland, Midlands and Harare, and leaving scores dead. To punish the whites he sacked Denis Norman as Minister of Agriculture.

F. The culmination of all these events meant that by late 1987 the spine of ZAPU had been broken and "unity" achieved. Mugabe was declared Executive President. ANC's old friend ZAPU was effectively dead and those survivors of Zapu who remained or were forced to remain in the hierarchy of Zanu (PF) were routed by the new opposition party MDC in the 2000 elections. SK Moyo, Zimbabwe's Ambassador now to South Africa was one of these, humiliatingly defeated in his home constituency of Bulalima Mangwe on the borders of Botswana.

To punish those whom he thought had supported the MDC Mugabe destroyed commercial agriculture and thus the economy of Zimbabwe.

3. Deception. By the skilful deployment as top diplomats of people formerly identified with ZAPU and/or Joshua Nkomo like SK Moyo to South Africa, Kotsho Dube to Nigeria, Report Phelekezela Mphoko to Botswana Zanu (PF) have managed to prolong the fiction of being old allies from the struggle for liberation. In fact today's Zanu (PF) is nothing more than a criminal mafia which has hijacked Zimbabwe. Many of its servants from the old Zapu are used and kept in place today by a mixture of bribery, blackmail and terror, forever having to look over their shoulders to see who is listening.

That brief background serves only to illustrate that what is happening today is nothing new. It is simply an intensified operation to get rid of the last vestiges of perceived opponents now described by the head of police Augustine Chihuri as a crawling mass of maggots. No one must allow themselves to be deluded about what is going on in Zimbabwe. Just as Gukuruhundi was designed to kill, so is Operation Murambatsvina. If, in bitter winter, you deprive people and their children of shelter and thus also their food and clothing and warmth; if you deprive them of their tools of trade and their means of survival you do this for one reason only; you intend them to die. As a report published in the UK Independent last week stated: "Aids, starvation and depopulation of the cities is sending tens of thousands to a silent death in the rural areas" where, jobless and homeless, they are waiting to die. Daniel Howden was reporting from Brunapeg Hospital on the border of Botswana from where help could still be made available to the dying people he writes about, if the will was there to provide it. It was the Independent who published the chilling statistic that already the death rate is outstripping the birth rate by 4000 per week.

I remind you once more of the words of Didymus Mutasa now Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Lands Reform and Resettlement in the office of the President. In August 2002 he said "We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people."

They have been planning Operation Murambatsvina for a long time. As Mugabe was reported just this morning on South African radio it has been a campaign planned well in advance and has been "a long cherished desire".

Possible action

1. Recognise the fact that while those who continue to oppose the regime from within Zimbabwe need all possible support they cannot be expected to drive change internally because of
i) the destruction of the rule of law, the judiciary, the press and the economy
ii) the brutalisation of the population including both the victims and the perpetrators
iii) the consequences of attrition. It is estimated that 70% of the 18-65 age group now live outside the country
iv) they have no means of protecting themselves

2. There should be no more solidarity of any kind with Zanu (PF) and no more political cover - e.g. blocking efforts by the UN Human Rights Commission to send a fact finding team and blocking efforts to get these issues raised in the UN General Assembly and waiting for reports from whomever. The meetings of the G8, the African Union and the United Nations in the next weeks should be used as launching pads for very serious action to be taken against this genocidal regime including gathering evidence of crimes against humanity within Zimbabwe since 1980. I do not use the word genocidal lightly. Even before the unleashing of Operation Murambatsvina it was estimated that 4 million Zimbabweans were in grave danger of starvation. If our population now stands at about 10 million the deaths of 4 million plus people will bring the statistics down to the figure given publicly by Didymus Mutasa as desirable - 6 million.

3. Even now some form of loosening up of Zanu (PF) structures could be started with complicit people like Chihuri perhaps through his contacts in Interpol, or, on different levels, Ambassadors and High Commissioners being offered leniency in return for their assistance in providing information and resistance of all kinds to the regime. A lot of those complicit now will want the chance to run for cover. Stop all arms sales; all sales of spare parts; all bank loans; everything that can extend the life of the regime. The longer the life of the regime is extended the more people will die. The regime will not stop with what we know so far of Operation Murambatsvina. THEY WILL NOT STOP UNTIL THEY ARE STOPPED.

4.
Appoint a very strong Ambassador to Zimbabwe and a full time Presidential envoy to liaise with all groups in clearing the way to a conference on a new constitution which should probably be convened in South Africa. Support should be made available to all civil society organisations in South Africa who are trying to assist counterparts and others in Zimbabwe and to Cosatu and the SACP and the councils of churches with their efforts regarding Zimbabwe.

5. Enunciate the fact clearly and loudly that the people of Zimbabwe, Nepad, the Commonwealth and the African Union are more important than Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF). Mugabe has only a little time left on earth but the people of Zimbabwe and their history will continue for ever. They will want to know about silent diplomacy and how they were affected. When Mugabe has gone and the era of silent diplomacy has come to an end what will South Africa have to say to the people of Zimbabwe?

6. Inventory of the destruction of Zimbabwe and a corresponding assessment of people able to come home for the reconstruction.

7. Instead of the electric fence being switched on along the Botswana border, start immediately providing vast help to the affected and dying people over the Zimbabwe border. If I remember rightly South Africa flew water to victims of the Asian Tsunami. Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans just over your borders need food, water, medicine, clothing, shelter. They are within the reach of helicopters from South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.

8. In order to compel all involved to move towards a constitutional conference, which should perhaps be convened in South Africa, all pressure possible should be brought to bear on members and servants of the regime, like the denial of visas either to or through South Africa or SADEC countries until they come to heel. Total sanctions should be imposed and, if necessary, Dennis Brutus should be called back from the USA to talk to South Africans like Gerald Majolo, Cricket South Africa chief executive about sport and politics.

"In a tiny scene, captured by a hidden tv camera filming the political cleansing Robert Mugabe has visited on … Zimbabweans … one shot expressed a moment of great poignancy. A man…reached out and stroked the arm of … his daughter as she walked away from him and he gazed down, eyes shaded, at the ground. It was the gesture of a second, hopeless, it seemed, because he could do nothing more to protect or soothe her than this touch, a gesture which only told her he was still a living being, and reassured him that she was too".
John Lloyd, Father's Day, The Scotsman, reprinted in NETGO News June 19 2005.

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