Earlier last month, I published an article about how the situation in Zimbabwe was hopeless. It looks like that prediction has come to pass. It was to be expected. After all, Mugabe’s declarations of holding onto power until God himself took it away were not just for show. He had the military to back him up (and said military really wanted to keep him in power. The pressure worked: his opponent dropped out of the race, and thus Mugabe won by a landslide of supposedly 85%.
This would not be news. After all, there have been previous elections where Mugabe has stolen government power. What makes this different, however, is the leaders of sub-Saharan Africa have formally abandoned any real attempt at stopping him. While some neighboring countries’ leaders criticized Mugabe openly, the African Union, and more specifically South Africa have refused to take meaningful action, in the case of the former even inviting Mugabe to an AU Summit despite his recent actions.
This is unacceptable. The leaders of Africa know that Mugabe’s time has passed. There must be concrete pressure from the entire continent to get him to leave now.
