What has happened to once-proud Zimbabwe is the stuff of movies. Horror movies. Outbreaks of cholera, biting hunger and severe oppression. Inflation? Currently at 20 million percent according to CNN. Alternatively, you can take the much more conservative official figure of 11.2 million percent. Disputed elections and loss of life on the continent is no longer news so I will not dwell on that.
Here is the bad news. The bad news is that Mugabe has presided over all this pretty much unscathed. After the so called presidential election many people thought that Mugabe would disappear. Zimbabwe was under the kind of despair and tension that one would have thought could lead to a French-like revolution. There were rumours the West would 'ask' Mugabe to disappear to a friedly nation in exchange for not getting his assets frozen and getting whisked to international court. Then there was the expectation that South Africa with their growing refugee problem would not let things stand. They would surely force him out for the good of both countries.
Alas, several months later Mugabe is still running things. Imposing sanctions under these circumstances is downright moronic. How does a president who is willing to bring his country to its knees for the sake of power feel the pressure of economic sanctions?
Now, this is the saddest thing I have seen in a long time because of the precedent it sets. If this is the worst case scenario and the feckless president survives, imagine how heartened the other 'moderate' dictators must be. It doesn't bode well for Africa. While many have a tendency to over-report the dark side of Africa, this is truly deserving of the world's attention. Too bad that attention has not amounted to any action worth paying attention to.
