'Down with the British!'

Mugabe's message on Indepence Day

"Down with the British. Down with thieves who want to steal our country" - that was President Robert Mugabe's messasge to 15,000 Zimbabweans who gathered at a rally in Gwanzura Stadium, in the Highfield suburb of Harare, to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the end of white minority rule.

He called on Zimbabweans to be vigilant in the face of "vicious British machinations", and said the government was attempting to deal with Zimbabwe'sw economic problems, including hyper-inflation, high unemployment, and the shortage of food.

Opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking in Johannesburg, said that this anniversary was "the saddest independence day since our liberation from colonial rule."

In Durban the controversial Chinese freighter, bearing a cargo of arms and ammunition for the Zanu-PF government, remains unloaded. The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union refused to undertake the work, saying that it did "not agree with the position of the government not to intervene."

Comments

[Kristin]

Without a doubt, the man is INSANE.
His warped mind is trapped in an era of decades ago.
The really sad part is how many people he's drawn into his terrified, paranoid, ignorant little world.
This is no longer and issue of Zimbabwe vs the British, Blacks vs Whites. It's Mugabe and his evil thug elite vs the true, peaceful people of Zimbabwe.
His time has passed, even though he tries to hang on...

[macpayne]

"Moses Moyo", I've a question for you. I know for a fact that the government monitors internet traffic (emails) into Zimbabwe... so, it stands to reason that outbound traffic is monitored, as well. How is it that you can get your posts out without being detected and having your hands (and head) removed?

Now, obviously, presuming "Moses" really is in Harare, or where ever, the definitive answer to that question has to remain covert, but I'm just thinking aloud.

And, by-the-way, Thanks to the South Africans who've refused to unload the ship. At least, SOMEBODY there is doing something. Their support for freedom is not unnoticed.

Yes, Kristin, there is a mad-man at the tiller. Do you ever wonder just how a mind like that works... how do they justify themselves... how is it they can view a situation and have their mind twist it to the point it's no longer recognizable... or do they realize how evil they are, but greed for money and power keeps them from caring about anything else. Kinda like the power of "the Ring", maybe?

And, since a leader is nothing without followers, how can so many thousands be either so gullible or so uncaring as to continue their support for such evil. Tell me.

Whatever, its all so sad that a people can be so used and abused by one in whom there was once so much pride and hope. It sickens me.

Pray for justice. Pray hard.

[RMacleod]

According to the New York Times the Chinese ship is now off to Maputo to unload its cargo.

[Michael]

macpayne, in answer to your question (how can so many thousands be either so gullible or so uncaring as to continue their support for such evil), you missed a single word out there that would have explained the whole 28 years of Zimbabwe's history under Mugabe, and in fact his involvement in the Rhodesian phase of history too. The word you missed out was Terrified, and as someone who was in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and Zimbabwe during the change over it seems quite clear that the bullying and terrorism tactics he used in the first election 28 years ago have only changed by the fact that they are now being done by a ruling body.

[macpayne]

Point taken, Michael. It’s difficult to imagine living with that kind of fear and constant propaganda. And, I suppose, for lots of folk, it’s really true that if you “tell a big enough lie loud enough and long enough, there are those who'll begin to believe it". Plus, without doubt, bigotry and racism isn’t an evil confined only to whites… and those are tools Mugabe employs well.

Certainly, the UN and SADC were begun with noble intent, but now are no more than tools to enable the ruthless and a piggy bank for the unsavory. I suppose, if Zimbabwe was a resource for oil, the West would have been exerting its influence long ago. And, were news cameras allowed in Zimbabwe, popular entertainers and liberal politicians from the West would be following them around so they could be seen crying out against the injustices. Oh, wait… never mind… those are the same people who embrace Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. My mistake.

Mugabe’s most intelligent strategy was to insure that any opposition that ever arose from within the country would have only sticks and stones with which to defend themselves. Mugabe’s courts will never call the individual soldiers and policemen into account for their actions as henchmen, but before God they’ll have no answer and they’ll cry out for eternity, pleading for the mercy they denied the defenseless. Unfortunately, all of us who sit by wringing our hands, and doing nothing, will also have no answer.

Pray. Pray for us all.

[Michael]

I'd disagree with you on the point of Mugabe's most intelligent strategy.

Admittedly the suppression of opposition within Zimbabwe was a smart move on his part, but I think there is one that he made which was far smarter and more effective.

Within the first few years in power he ensured that the old 'Colonial masters' could never move against him without igniting Africa ..... which also meant that, by default, it crippled any attempts by any of Britain's allies to stabilise Zimbabwe and remove him from power, as it would be seen as an attempt by the big bad West to re-colonise Southern Africa.

Mugabe has not changed all that much since the 1970s ..... he was, and always will be a Terrorist (Freedom fighters fight the occupying enemy only, Terrorists kill the people that would support them as well as the enemy)

[no to britain]

To all the people that thinks this is not a black or white thing, think again. White Europeans and Americans feel that blacks are beneath them and will do anything to subject us to their ways of life. Get your head out your ass, they have been raping African women, pillaging the continent for its food and natural resources for hundreds of years. They hate to see a "nigger" as Mugabe get out of line and not do as he is told by his western "masters." I wish more African leaders were like Mugabe and stood up to white colonialists, maybe Africa as a continent would be far better of today. Yes we will go through pain, but in the long run we black of Africa will self rule ourselves economically and socially.

[Michael]

Evidently you are another of the racist idiots that love to get their badly thought out and half baked ideas out in the open.

You appear to be stuck in the past, and as such can only look back and not forward, and as such, I'll answer your post a point at a time, so that you, with your racist mindset can grasp it piece by piece.

1: It isn't a black and white thing, because we're not talking about the Europeans or Americans here, it is ZIMBABWEANS, who come in both colours .... and as long as they are able to get along thats fine by me. (Just as a side note, It was you that used the term 'nigger' there, ask most white Zimbabweans .... and yes, I've talked with some of them at length about it ..... and that word will never come up, strange that it is used by someone insinuating themselves to be a defender of Zimbabwe, isn't it?)

2: Yes, bad things have been done over hundreds of years ..... and while you look back at them, you'll never see the way forward. This history should never be forgotten lest it happen again, but it should not be a barrier to working to better OUR country.

3: Going back to the Black/White thing for a second, you seem to forget that the death toll among the Black population under Mugabe's rule is higher than at almost any point previously ..... Thats not 'out of line', that is simply EVIL.

4: If more African leaders were like Mugabe (and there have been a few, Amin for instance), then Africa would never know the peace we all wish her to have.

5: If Mugabe and his genocidal thugs were to stay in power then you would see, rather than social and economical self rule, total social and economic collapse (which of course wouldn't affect Mugabe's 'pension plan', the money he has been STEALING from ZIMBABWEANS for 28 years)

In your own words, 'get your head out of your ass', get that huge racist chip off your shoulder and look at things as they really are ..... Zimbabwe is being systematically destroyed by the man you are hailing as a hero ..... sheer lunacy.

[Michael]

In fact, 'no to Britain', I just feel I have to ask a couple of questions of you, just out of curiosity.

1: What age are you?

2: What experience or qualification do you have for the view you've stated there?

of course you could always avoid the questions, but I believe it would at least give the readers of these comments an insight into why, under the pretext of racial disharmony, you refuse to acknowledge that Zimbabwe should now be an independant state with equality for all who were born or made their home there with the good of their country at heart.

[Big Daddy]

To "no brain"; you truly have the IQ of a black potato. Dr. Watson was right to state that blacks have never shown any progress and never will becuase your brain power is non-existent. I bet you're living in a white Western country probably receiving welfare and casuing crime like other dumb "niggas". To praise Mugabe just shows your total lack of intelligence.

[Michael]

Big Daddy, you've just shown that as well as intelligent people on both sides of the colour fence, there are also brainless people on both.

Your overtly racist remarks aren't constructive and certainly don't come from experience ..... going by the way you put yourself over on here you probably weren't even born when Mugabe took power, and I would be more than a little surprised if you'd ever left your 'white western country' to get some experience of how things actually work.

Come back and take part in the discussion when you've grown a brain cell or two, otherwise butt out and let 'mom and dad' talk.