'We Sink Or Swim Together' 


The Herald (Harare)


OPINION
27 September 2007 
Posted to the web 27 September 2007 

By Mabasa Sasa
Harare 

IT seems the whole of Africa has been rallying around Zimbabwe of late, never mind UK Premier Gordon Brown petulantly pouting: "If President Robert Mugabe is at the EU-Africa Summit I will not go!" 

Zambian Information Minister Mike Mulongoti has said: "It would be pointless for President (Levy) Mwanawasa and others (African leaders) to go there because then there is no need if people are not willing to dialogue with others." 

     
It must be noted that President Mwanawasa is the current chair of the regional grouping, Sadc. Ghana's Foreign Affairs Minister, Akwasi Osei Adjei, has warned that Zimbabwe should be in attendance, to hell with what Gordon Brown thinks. In his own words: "I believe we are coming with all the members of the African Union, the heads of state of the African Union. So, definitely the invitation will be issued (to President Mugabe)." It must also be noted, significantly, that Ghana's President John Kuffour is presently heading the African Union. 

Mozambique's Foreign Affairs Minister, Alcide Abreu, has said Maputo will go by Sadc's and the AU's position. Former Mozambican head of state Joaquim Chissano expressed the view that: "Any government is free to take a stance which it deems fit to defend its interests. In this case, it's necessary to find out if it is in the interest of the larger group to which she (Britain) belongs, which is the EU." 

Leefa Martin, Sadc's spokeswoman, has put it thus: "Attempting to isolate His Excellency President Robert Mugabe would be contrary to the letter and spirit of that initiative and, thus, the Sadc position is that of non-participation if one of the region's leaders, namely President Robert Mugabe, is not invited." 

Even "strange characters with strange ideas" like Don McKinnon have jumped onto the bandwagon. 

McKinnon, who engineered Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth leading to Harare pulling out of the grouping of former British colonies, has "advised" the EU that President Mugabe is a hero and Zimbabwe should be invited to the December Summit being hosted by Portugal. 

While McKinnon's utterances come as something of a surprise, the position of the African continent at large and that of Sadc in particular on Zimbabwe's participation at the summit is, though some in the West may find it hard to believe, only to be expected. 

The latest stand by Sadc to stare down British intimidation points to a resurrection of the spirit that gelled the region in years gone by and has echoes of the unity that characterised the Frontline States. If understood in the context of the Frontline States, the region's support of Zimbabwe in the face of brute intimidation from those opposed to the Government in Harare becomes easy to understand. 

Between 1975 and 1980, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia and Botswana teamed up to aid Zimbabwe and South Africa's liberation from colonial and apartheid regimes and the price they paid for this solidarity was quite dear indeed. There were acts of aggression, sabotage and destabilisation aimed at these five countries by the South African racist regime. 

Rebel movements were funded to fan civil wars and there were military raids by the forces of regression into the Frontline States. Mozambique, and indeed the entire region, suffered a major blow, when apartheid South Africa saw to the assassination of Samora Machel in 1986. 

The apartheid regime slapped sanctions on the Frontline States, resulting in huge economic losses as trade routes became distorted. 

Furthermore, billions of dollars had to be spent on defence rather than on much-needed social services, health and education as the Frontline States had to protect themselves from an apartheid regime intent on reversing the gains of the liberation struggle in the region. According to some estimates, over two million people died while another seven million were displaced in the Frontline States because of South Africa's opposition to democracy. A 1989 Commonwealth report says the Frontline States lost around US$45 billion in 10 years - "almost three times their combined foreign debt at the time". A former Zambian home affairs minister, Aaron Milner, is on record as saying his country's economic under-performance could be directly linked to the anti-apartheid struggle. 

"We had to divert our resources to finance the different liberation movements including the ANC," he said, adding: "The sacrifice was worth it." 

In the 21st century, Tanzania, alongside Zimbabwe, has largely been at the forefront of the revival and perpetuation of the spirit of resistance that has made Southern Africa what it is today. This is hardly surprising considering the role Mwalimu Julius Nyerere played in the liberation of not only the region, but in Africa as a whole. A Tanzanian who was pivotal in the fight against racist minority rule is Brigadier-General Hashim Mbita, a man many Zimbabweans will remember as the charismatic ambassador to this country not so long ago. 

His major contribution to African independence came when he was executive secretary of the Liberation Committee of the Organisation of African Unity (now AU) from 1974 up to the time South Africa became free in 1994. 

Brig-Gen Mbita outlined the history of the Frontline States in three stages: "First as victims, second as defiant people and third as victors. The stages that this process went through covered agitation, political organisation and eventually physical confrontation. "The birth of the Frontline States as a dependable rear base and victory which saw the establishment of Sadc as an organ for economic transformation and consolidation of the regional security, peace and defence must be carefully examined." 

If Sadc today is a child of the Frontline States it becomes obvious that the regional organisation is bound to stand by Zimbabwe against the machinations of the same people responsible for the colonisation and underdevelopment of Africa. 

Speaking at the 2005 Sadc Summit, former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa rallied the region around the spirit that inspired the successes of the Frontline States. "Together we shared, together we endured and together we brought to triumph to the liberation struggle. The spirit of the Frontline States should invigorate us into action  - action that would see Sadc emerge as the most purposeful, most powerful and most regional economic grouping in our lifetime," he said. "The solidarity forged in the heat of struggle can, today, if properly harnessed, help us forge regional integration at a greater pace . . . let the Sadc Summit be the fire around which people in this region sit - in unity, solidarity and enthusiasm  - to chart a path of survival and prosperity through the jungle of a globalising world." 

South African President Thabo Mbeki answered this call thus: "The 'spirit of the Frontline States' to which President Mkapa referred means that as members of Sadc we must be ready and willing to work closely together, understanding that we share a common destiny. 

"It means that all of us must understand that what we do in any one of our countries has an impact on the rest. It means that as countries, we will sink or swim together." 

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