Doc Dave's Blog

NO RAINBOW IN ZIMBABWE…JUST CLOUDS

15-04-2008

Zimbabwe is on high alert today after the opposition Movement For Democratic Chamge called for a General Strike. They're reacting to the continued failure of Robert Mugabe's government to release the results of the election two weeks ago. Dr David Nicholl calls on neighbouring South Africa to act.

After Nelson Mandela came to power in South Africa after the 1994 election, it marked the end of apartheid and the birth of a new South Africa, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu called the ‘rainbow nation’.

Today, with no election result in sight in Zimbabwe after 2 weeks of stalling by Robert Mugabe, there are no political rainbows in Harare - indeed the storm clouds are brewing, led in part by the complicity of the South African government.

The South African President, Thabo Mbeki has said that there is “no crisis” in Zimbabwe and called for more patience for the election result. Quite simply, what planet is Mr Mbeki on?

Zimbabwe has the highest infant mortality rate in the World - one in eight children die before they are 5 and 24% of the country are HIV positive, a disease which Mr Mbeki are failed to deal with properly in South Africa.

That’s without mentioning the inflation rate at over 100,000%.

Mbeki and the other African leaders could and should insist on immediate release of the full Zimbabwean election results, anything less will doom not just a country but a region to a future of failure.