Time to Agitate for Mugabe to Go

The University of Edinburgh made the extraordinary move, today, of stipping a previous recipient of an honorary degree of their award.

In this case the recipient was Robert Mugabe.

There are many people in the UK with links to Zimbabwe. The colonial legacy means that this is true at the governmental level, too. Sadly, rather than those links leading to a movement within the UK to agitate more strongly for Mugabe to go, we seem to be weighed down by history, to the point where it has prevented us from expressing the outrage that the appalling conditions in Zimbabwe demand. For the Conservative Party the situation has seemed even worse. Many senior figures seem cowed into silence for fear of accusations of Imperialism. Michael Ancram has been a notable exception. We should be ashamed.

On his recent trip to Africa, Blair backed a “softly-softly” approach to dealing with Mugabe, echoing the stance of South Africa’s President Mbeki, who leads the one country that could topple him quickly by cutting power supplies to the country without resorting to military force.

Blair has, effectively, ignored Zimbabwe as he has many of the other problems in Africa (Sierra Leone is a notable exception for which Blair deserves credit). The excesses of the Mugabe regime have taken place during his time in Downing Street and he has consistently failed to address them. Kate Hoey stands as an example to the Labour Party for her efforts in drawing attention to the problems and the need to be more active in dealing with the situation.

Since independence in 1980, under Mugabe, Zimbabwe has gone from being the bread basket of Africa to being a net food importer. Three out of every four adults is unemployed. Thousands have died in the clashes between political supporters of Zanu PF, Mugabe’s party, and opposition groups. Farms have been seized and razed. An education system that was the envy of Africa has been decimated. According to the World Health Organization, life expectancy for men in Zimbabwe is now just 37 years for men and 34 for women, the lowest of any country on earth.

One man’s desire to hold on to power at any cost is the root cause over all of these ills.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have been too timid in dealing with Mugabe. The time has come to recognise the part the UK played in bringing him to power and to become more active in supporting efforts to remove him.