'Scorched earth policy in Zim'

2005-06-19 19:38

Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki should condemn the Zimbabwean government's clampdown on street traders and shack dwellers to ensure Africa's credibility at next month's G8 Summit, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.

"The African peer review mechanism will never be taken seriously by world leaders unless President Mbeki and his fellow African leaders are seen to be taking action against acts of despotism of this sort," the DA's Joe Seremane said.

"Unless urgent and focused action is taken by President Mbeki on Zimbabwe, there is every chance that a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions will be allowed to develop - to the cost all who live in the region," he said.

Seremane was referring to the Zimbabwe government's Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, in which police have destroyed shacks and arrested street vendors.

The operation has seen the Zanu-PF government "unleash a 'scorched earth policy', in an unprecedented act of political retribution," Seremane said.

"Imagine calling hundreds of thousands of people trash. These are the incipient seeds of genocide."

Seremane said South Africa had not spoken out against the Zimbabwean government's "systematic and brutal campaign against its own people that has caused untold human suffering".

"The operation bears all the hallmarks of apartheid-era forced removals, yet at a scale that even the apartheid government could not have dreamed of.

"In the face of such unprecedented suffering, President Mbeki has chosen to remain silent," he said.

Seremane said Mbeki's stance had prompted Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to criticise the South African president for failing to provide the necessary leadership.

"President Mbeki has always defended his 'quiet diplomacy' on Zimbabwe by arguing that he is intent on ensuring stability in Zimbabwe.

"In light of this massive and destabilising clampdown, it appears that even this excuse for failing to speak out has now worn thin," Seremane said.

Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised countries will meet in Scotland in July to discuss poverty reduction in Africa.

- SAPA