The Global Community Tribunal

For some or other reason someone posted a letter on Muti today which was written and published as far back as 12 April 2007. This open letter addressed to Thabo Mbeki under the title “Dear Mr President …” was written by Brian Chikwava and deals with the Zimbabwean crisis and the proposed manner in which Thabo Mbeki should deal with it. The letter starts off with the following:

“Dear Mr President ….There are clamours from all corners of the Earth asking you to do their bidding on the Zimbabwean question. I do not agree with that on principle. Although I am not in the habit of writing letters, I am worried that events north of the Limpopo may soon leave you with few comrades to count on.

South Africa’s own path to democracy is instructive. Today, from the Republic of South Africa we have witnessed the birth of the African Renaissance, which now roars up in the sky like the sun, sending freedom and great tidings to the weary bones of the inhabitants of the continent of Africa.

I agree that Zimbabwe’s problems should be solved by the people of Zimbabwe. A cursory glance at history will reveal that, in their struggle for democracy, South Africans went about their business quietly. They never bawled for outside help in the way Zimbabweans are doing. They never moralised to the world about the conditions in their country. They did it all by themselves.”

Maybe it is good that the contents of this letter be evaluated now, almost a year after being written. Maybe we may learn something of the unfathomable intellect of Africa.

He firstly refers to South Africa and the birth of the ‘African Renaissance’. He says it “roars up in the sky like the sun, sending freedom and great tidings to the weary bones” of Africa. With a ‘renaissance’ I presume that he refers to an age of enlightenment which follows on some medieval, dark age as occurred in Europe a few centuries ago. As I am not aware of any development, I’m afraid that the writer will have to provide more information about this roar into the sky”, what ‘new found freedom’ he refers to. The ‘tidings’ he speaks of have also not reached our ears.

I must confess towards Mr Chikwava that all I see is the DRC, Kenya, Zambia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Equatorial Africa and even Nigeria. No renaissance is taking place in these places that I know of. Maybe he refers to Botswana, the AIDS ridden country that is the only light in Africa. Even in South Africa everything indicates that the Western concept of a democracy based on the Rule of Law is on a downward slope and that your concept of freedom is taking over.

It is obvious from the letter that Brian Chikwava is a staunch supporter of Robert Mugabe. He says

“The entire population of Zimbabwe was liberated by Comrade Robert Mugabe, a great son of Africa. But since then they have forgotten themselves. On close examination, we can see Zimbabweans misbehaving, throwing their tails about, employing all the force of their ballot boxes to evict the great liberator from office.”

The ‘entire population’ referred to presumably does not include the whites as they were disowned and chased out of the country. I also presume that it does not include the almost 100 000 Mathabeles, murdered on instruction of this great liberator. It would further seem to exclude those ignorant members of the population who see freedom and liberation as something that culminates in democracy and the exercise of the vote at the ballot box. Can you believe the audacity of these people using the ballot box to remove this great liberator from office?!

I would agree that one should ignore the demands of those bastards in the West. The problem I however foresee is that we’ll have serious problems without the US$300 billion aid on which we depend. You know, on top of the US$ 300 billion our ‘liberators’ dispossess from their populations, it is rather a substantial amount to do without. We need money to buy bullets so that we can effectively intimidate the demonstrators.

So, under the circumstances, I do understand that you are satisfied with the way in which Mbeki has handled the matter. Your liberator can go on doing what African liberators do best whilst Mbeki keeps the West satisfied and the money rolling in.

Before closing off I would like to share with Mr Chikwava one piece of personal wisdom. You know, life has certain rules. In trade, for instance, if you want to make profit from selling bananas, you must sell it for more than you paid for it. In your price you must also provide for those losses due to bananas getting bad. Simple rules. If you want to make more profit, you can’t just raise the price because you are then going to be more expensive than your competitor. You must buy more, start new distribution points, train people to sell for you – keep them from stealing from you, etc.

Now, western economics, liberation, freedom and democracy – all these concepts have their specific principles to be followed. You do not kill a man and say that he has been liberated. In the West that is not liberation. It’s murder or, as in Mugabe’s instance, a crime against humanity. No, you give him a ballot paper and a ballot box and you tell him to vote for the person that he wishes to govern him in accordance with the Constitution. You tell him that if, by any chance his candidate is not finally chosen by all, he should accept the choice of the majority. He must not start killing those who voted for the winner. That is how things work. If it does not work like this it may be something peculiar with an African name. It is however not freedom and democracy.

Finally and in regard to the renaissance, I wish to add, The day you and your bro’s accept these basic principles I explained to you – that day will be the first day of the African Renaissance!

J.C.Grobler.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.