1
00:00:00,300 --> 00:00:03,300
The problems in Zimbabwe begin in 2000.

2
00:00:03,300 --> 00:00:14,100
They basically revolve around land contestations between white Zimbabweans and a black government ZANU-PF government,

3
00:00:14,100 --> 00:00:18,780
which a part of which sought to redress land imbalance.

4
00:00:18,780 --> 00:00:31,140
But at the same time, this campaign for land redistribution to a campaign trying to turn to defeat the new opposition MDC party.

5
00:00:31,140 --> 00:00:36,980
But I want to jump ahead straight the events of last year, 2008 poster.

6
00:00:36,980 --> 00:00:42,900
The March election, I'm sure we're all stunned by the amount of violence that went on.

7
00:00:42,900 --> 00:00:52,050
Now, I want to begin there because I think that the key thing was that inhibited the need Sadek and other organisations

8
00:00:52,050 --> 00:00:57,900
outside for finding a resolution that prompted about for a long time was the nature of the violence.

9
00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:03,760
I mean I mean, the answer of violence with fists, sticks, boots, stones, bicycle chains and metal poles.

10
00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:09,510
I mean, this is what they beat people up with, sort of like soft violence.

11
00:01:09,510 --> 00:01:15,660
That doesn't risk external intervention. Nobody was being killed as such.

12
00:01:15,660 --> 00:01:21,450
So this kind of we're watching on TV, it is people beaten up or bruised up as horrible, as horrible.

13
00:01:21,450 --> 00:01:26,550
What can we do about that? But without it, we die to just beat up. We can't send in troops in there.

14
00:01:26,550 --> 00:01:31,800
You tried diplomacy. Robert Mugabe simply on. So in a sense, Saddiq was right.

15
00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:41,580
So I think it is important to understand the nature of that violence. And in that way, if so, it's a wild Nalgae.

16
00:01:41,580 --> 00:01:44,880
Maybe it's not. I think this that strategy.

17
00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:55,110
And does it seem more formal gown, incremental brutality goes back most famously to the Yugoslavian government of Slobodan Milosevic.

18
00:01:55,110 --> 00:02:03,210
Back in 1999, Milosevich implemented a programme of ethnic cleansing that sought to expel ethnic Albanian Kosovars from Kosovo.

19
00:02:03,210 --> 00:02:10,530
We should make the territory Serb dominated. Now, Milosevic's ethnic cleansing programme was premised on incremental brutality.

20
00:02:10,530 --> 00:02:19,110
The NSW government Coverley that if it kept violence in Kosovo below a tolerable threshold, NATO was unlikely to intervene.

21
00:02:19,110 --> 00:02:27,720
The dictum A Village a day keeps NATO awake became the Milosevich government's guiding principle in this ethnic cleansing programme.

22
00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:31,380
Mugabe, a box of degrees and violence. Quote unquote.

23
00:02:31,380 --> 00:02:42,360
And we could say the same strategy went on in Zimbabwe, for example, in regards to the land seizures, which began in 2000.

24
00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:48,120
The Mugabe government sought to present black farm invaders as genuine war veterans and landless peasants,

25
00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:54,390
denied access to their heritage and their rights to higher standards of living by a racist white minority.

26
00:02:54,390 --> 00:03:00,720
In this way, Mugabe claimed the mantle of victim. The Mugabe government claimed the mantle of victim for itself and the wider

27
00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:05,670
black population invading war veterans looted and burned white owned property,

28
00:03:05,670 --> 00:03:13,740
intimidated white farmers, slaughtered their pits. But there was no wholesale slaughter of white farmers and their families.

29
00:03:13,740 --> 00:03:20,550
This restraint promulgated this perception of black victims.

30
00:03:20,550 --> 00:03:26,020
This is one of the things that was quite striking about the land invasions when when when the seizures went on.

31
00:03:26,020 --> 00:03:32,490
And I don't mean to play in numbers. Gania, but only two of white farmers were killed when invaders took over farms.

32
00:03:32,490 --> 00:03:38,460
They day. They did not. Well, not the occasions. Besides beating up farmers, they killed the pets.

33
00:03:38,460 --> 00:03:42,450
Why? Why they killed the pets. Pets were. It was symbol of white racism in Zimbabwe.

34
00:03:42,450 --> 00:03:47,430
It is common folklore. You know, it's raining. It's called the black farm workers.

35
00:03:47,430 --> 00:03:51,900
And open but open or back of the open truck. And the white farmers dog is in front.

36
00:03:51,900 --> 00:04:00,810
So they kill dogs instead. Don't kill the farms. Kill the farmers. Someone's going to send troops in here and no one move the regime.

37
00:04:00,810 --> 00:04:03,510
So I just want to begin by the nature of the violence.

38
00:04:03,510 --> 00:04:15,780
It's been it's it's been conducted in such a way that it has been hard to defer to use any kind of forceful measures, so to speak, to prevent it.

39
00:04:15,780 --> 00:04:22,060
But I wanted you to, Saddiq. I don't have much time. I'll say four things about down the queue.

40
00:04:22,060 --> 00:04:31,800
I think it's in spite of the fact that a deal was reached in September, September 2008.

41
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:39,390
I don't see that as a success. In 2000, you had one of the most functional states who ever find in Africa.

42
00:04:39,390 --> 00:04:44,040
It could do anything. It worked for a crisis to run on for that long.

43
00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:47,460
Eight years and it degenerates on the verge of state.

44
00:04:47,460 --> 00:04:52,630
Failure is a huge failure in my in my in my book.

45
00:04:52,630 --> 00:04:59,720
Now, why did this happen before? Why wasn't the deal struck? And we can talk about whether the unity government deal is such a great idea.

46
00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:02,990
Question and answer session. I think, first of all,

47
00:05:02,990 --> 00:05:11,930
the thing that underline one key observation comes out of this is the mantra about African solutions to African problems is vacuous.

48
00:05:11,930 --> 00:05:19,970
There is no real commitment to this. Admit many times key summits were way they would bring Mugabe together and the opposition.

49
00:05:19,970 --> 00:05:26,630
On one occasion, for example, only five leaders of the 15 nation bloc actually bothered to show up.

50
00:05:26,630 --> 00:05:31,400
The other 10 just wasn't there. This is SADC.

51
00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:42,820
Second thing, I think for as long as the political calculus of African leaders remains unchanged, they will pay lip service to peacebuilding.

52
00:05:42,820 --> 00:05:46,940
African politicians respond to factors that can win or lose elections.

53
00:05:46,940 --> 00:05:54,650
If there is no domestic electoral price to pay, they can easily ignore or be indecisive about policy foreign problems.

54
00:05:54,650 --> 00:06:03,260
This was the case with Zimbabwe. No African leader lost an election because they didn't resolve the problems in Zimbabwe right after.

55
00:06:03,260 --> 00:06:12,140
In opposition parties and civil society need to make the resolution of African crises election issues in their respective domestic constituencies.

56
00:06:12,140 --> 00:06:22,760
Only then will incumbent African politicians, and we belong to bodies such as SADC feel compelled to act decisively.

57
00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:24,230
The other thing.

58
00:06:24,230 --> 00:06:33,740
Third aid to get it is just in the nature of Zimbabwean political culture, kind of ties into what gentlemen you were saying about, you know,

59
00:06:33,740 --> 00:06:45,980
when you go to two parties, agonistic towards each other, if you're not willing to come together, accessors just sit down and work things out.

60
00:06:45,980 --> 00:06:47,400
You're never going to get a deal.

61
00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:56,240
This Zimbabwe has a highly intolerant particular form of nationalism that has been promoted by the ruling party, ZANU-PF, highly intolerant.

62
00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:00,110
There is no room for any other party besides the ruling party,

63
00:07:00,110 --> 00:07:05,480
which sees itself as the guardian of Zimbabwean independence because it delivered independence.

64
00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:15,130
So no one else can be allowed to rule this country in our absence or by our side because we fought for this country since.

65
00:07:15,130 --> 00:07:21,830
Is this strong? And Corrine's and it was it was it was for a long time, was a key stumbling block.

66
00:07:21,830 --> 00:07:31,680
And even now, with the unity government deal, some appear still behaves as if it is the only party in government.

67
00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:40,940
One other thing I want to mention is the lack of a majority of bonafied Democrats

68
00:07:40,940 --> 00:07:47,280
amongst African leaders cripples the march of democracy on the continent.

69
00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:55,230
I mean, Angola states less than free and fair elections in September.

70
00:07:55,230 --> 00:08:00,250
Zambia in recent most recent Zambian election was present. Election was disputed.

71
00:08:00,250 --> 00:08:07,580
Swaziland is is governed by an absolute monarch. And these are the member states of SADC.

72
00:08:07,580 --> 00:08:13,310
Are they really going to promote democracy in Mugabe's country?

73
00:08:13,310 --> 00:08:19,510
No. Lasting often.

74
00:08:19,510 --> 00:08:21,240
The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,

75
00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:31,650
accused Saddiq of lacking the courage and the decency to look Robert Mugabe in the eyes and instruct him to to share power fairly with his party.

76
00:08:31,650 --> 00:08:40,260
I think it's more accurate to say that SADC lacks the institutional capacity to deal effectively with regional political crises.

77
00:08:40,260 --> 00:08:47,640
Zimbabwe being one of them. SADC was originally created. This is a regional economic development body, not a political community.

78
00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:55,710
While SADC has declared democratic norms and standards in recent years, there are no punitive measures in place to guarantee that they are respected.

79
00:08:55,710 --> 00:09:00,090
So they all go. They going to do peace. We've got to do key and fair elections.

80
00:09:00,090 --> 00:09:03,921
But if somebody doesn't want what do what do you do about that? No.