Comments on: South Africans will sleep with anyone

By: william james obrien jr

william james obrien jr — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:36:55 +0000

greetings from virginia, usa – not far from jefferson’s old stomping-grounds……leonard makes some very good points – his is a warning to be heeded. especially, on account that the Red Dragon i do believe does lurk about and people don’t realize. i can’t forget the winter of ’83 around bulawayo and y’know northkorean troopies don’t just alight like so many ‘tinkerbells’ – bejing, like captain hook ultimately calls the shots all-the-while the old ‘crock’ with the clock in his gut still shares(?) power in salisbury. snaks, where’s peter pan when you need ‘em! Well but to hold-fast e luta continua, da watilaai we, wabatata o tango aiwe. truly pad werk voor! or is it as Wittgenstein fretted “the open road before-us is permanently closed” I believe not. open hearts and minds armed with art and song of the left-brain will wrestle-back the day from the right-brained, violence worshiping reptiles in laager wherever, whenever. it seems dark now – but – remember your Dante! we’ll all walk out of the “inferno” that is of others and our own constructed’ past into as the poetess levertov called a calm dawn where we can begin again. e quindi uscumo a rividere le stella….from there that we emerged to see once more the stars. enough, my head/heart still hurts from casinga to ft victoria and body’s tired from past ‘lovetaps’ in mutare…..but mark me true love will prevail, though errant knaves-all i/we defy agury. ad astra peace of christ’s luv ty’all . the motopos will be there in the morning just as the shenandoah and alleganies that hold my gaze this eve. stand-fast Zimbabwe?Rhodesia the dawn will come for the just (sally D you hit the nail on its head my email is obrienwags@aol.com also on facebook…godspeed) wildbill out.

By: Janet Moyo

Janet Moyo — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:21:37 +0000

I see your concerns but do not agree with most of the things you say. Zimbabwe – at most levels has since abandoned the will of the people and is largley motivated by personal interests at many levels. Zim went into DRC and did well in enriching a few people at the expense of everybody and who can you blame for that/ And now as you say for its economic gain SA is opening up by scrapping the visas, I would like to ask you – whose problem is it that Zimbabwean leaderships does not have the socio-economic interests of their cizitens as a priority, why should SA be blamed for being strategic for the benefit of its people. Your departure point should be to look at the internal problems – root causes of all this lack of vision and strategy in Zimbabwe which SA is taking advantage of. I am a Zimbo and if my government was going all out – like SA is doing – for my benefit and for a sustainable future for my country – I would not be complaining. The problem is in our own beloved Zim not wih SA

By: Sally D

Sally D — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:24:02 +0000

Sorry, I forgot to add: none of my earlier comments should be taken to imply that South Africans have no responsibility for what’s happened in Zimbabwe. We do, and that’s one very good reason why we can’t complain now when millions of Zimbabweans arrive, desperate, at our door. We knew what was coming, our Government knew very well. Yet on the one hand we had Thabo Mbeki denying the significance of human rights in Zimbabwe (compared with the importance of land redistribution, which bizarrely he thought wasn’t an “upside down view” of Africa), and SA voting to protect Mugabe again and again in multilateral institutions like the UN. On the other, South African corporates and utilities eager to ensure that their Zimbabwean business partners could keep up with ever-increasing debt repayments, even as the Zim currency collapsed and the Chefs spirited their millions away overseas. And even now, the SA Government calls for “sanctions” to be removed on these same kleptocrats and their foreign bank accounts.

I can remember the exact place I was when I heard on the radio news that our Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, ably assisted by convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni, reckoned the Zimbabwe Presidential election of 2002 “substantially free and fair”. It was completely sickening!! And COPE supporters should note that Terror Lekota, our brand-new Defender of the ANC’s Democratic Heritage, had previously professed himself “deeply satisfied” with the reasons Mugabe gave him for refusing international election monitors – despite months of vicious State- sponsored violence against the oppostion, detention and deportation of journalists, and so forth. Someone should ask Lekota whether he’s still satisfied now that the full extent of the plunder and ruin of a beautiful, productive country has become obvious to the entire world, even us; and someone should ask Mbeki why he ever thought that the elimination of property rights could lead to people’s needs being met in Zimbabwe, whilst at the same time telling people that this kind of redistribution would never happen in SA.

A more academic (but thorough, and interesting) study of the so-called Quiet Diplomacy from a broader International Relations perspective can be found here:

http://www.ascleiden.nl/pdf/paper1373299325.pdf

By: Sally D

Sally D — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:35:48 +0000

Have to agree with Tshepo here. Although there’s a lot of truth in what you say, Leonard; the end of apartheid only came about because it had become bad for business, and not because the ANC had won any kind of military victory.

However, that’s where comparisons fall apart. The apartheid Government, unlike ZANU-PF did actually love their country in their own way; and they were able to take most of their supporters along with them when the time came to change the Constitution in the last whites-only vote. They were not prepared to put the country to the sword and live off the carcass; and South Africans wouldn’t have been prepared to let them.

So, I don’t know what you’re saying here, really. Concern for business has meant that we can afford to take care of ourselves, and as it happens of quite a lot of Zimbabweans too, because for some time we had a healthy fiscus that generated plenty of taxpayers’ money. What, then, are South Africans guilty of? Loving their country and putting it first?

I know Zimbabweans love their country – I’m one of those that do. But the state of neglect, corruption and shame that has befallen Zimbabwe has nothing to do with an inevitable political process (you’re fully with the Whining When-we’s of former Rhodesia on that incidentally) – and everything to do with a passive political culture where no one person seems willing to stick his or her neck out to save others.

As Thomas Jefferson once said of the USA, if we can’t be the “home of the brave” we won’t be the “land of the free” for long. Did Zimbabweans think that their freedoms didn’t need defending?

Hooray for the brave few who are trying to stand up for what’s right in Zimbabwe. That’s a lot more constructive than moaning about the lack of true friendship from across the border.

By: tshepo

tshepo — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:58:22 +0000

I’m a South African and naturally do not agree with your sentiments, SA did not push Zim into the quagmire it finds itself in. As for your asserion that SA is destined for a Zim-like future of poverty and squalor, all I can say is dream on! Watch us as we install our 4th president in PTA this weekend while you okes are still saddled with your despot,That’s the problem with Zimbo’s, too much education and not enough common sense…