I AM a Zimbabwean who decided to attend a public lecture on Zimbabwe by Professor John Makumbe of the University of Zimbabwe at Safari hotel on 22 August, here in Namibia.
I heard what I was expecting to hear from him: the abject poverty in Zimbabwe, characterised by high unemployment, hyper-inflation, shortage of electricity and basic commodities, no fuel, collapsed health delivery system and declining education standards among a plethora of other problems. A glance on the audience would give an estimation of about 70 people, about 40 per cent of whom where white.The white population in the whole of Namibia is about one per cent.An NGO had sponsored the lecture.They had paid the piper, and so the tune was theirs.Indeed, Professor Makumbe did not disappoint his paymasters – he was oratorical as he sensationalised and exaggerated the Zimbabwean situation, and made an emphatic conclusion that all the ills of Zimbabwe had been caused by Mugabe.Makumbe was making sweeping statements unbecoming of an intellectual whom we think he is.He lied that three million Zimbabwe dollars were worth about three Namibia dollars.”For you to survive in Zimbabwe you have to be corrupt”, said the professor, who himself is surviving in Zimbabwe.So, according to his own logic, Makumbe is corrupt.Zimbabwe is not under any sanctions, the audience was told.African leaders are protecting Mugabe because they are mismanaging their own countries as well, and that they also want to rule forever.The SADC initiative on Zimbabwe will not succeed.Namibia will go the way of Zimbabwe, prophesied the academic.Makumbe was emotional and personally attacked an Embassy of Zimbabwe official after the official had indicated that the profile on Makumbe had left out that he is a perennial government critic and opposition activist who cannot be expected to give a balanced discourse on Zimbabwe.Africa and Africans should learn, and learn fast.The donor community has a different agenda under the veneer of so called human rights, governance, democracy etc.Western money is causing Africa to fall apart.As an intellectual, Makumbe was supposed to draw parallels: For example, he was supposed to tell his audience why Nigeria, with worse human rights abuse records than Zimbabwe, continues to get Western support.The audience needed to be told why Uganda, a virtual one party-state, is never vilified by the western media.Makumbe mentioned the civil war in Zimbabwe, claiming that Mugabe killed 20 000 people, but did not mention how many civilians were killed by the Smith regime a few years earlier than the Zimbabwe civil war.Currently, in Namibia, an NGO wants the founding President Sam Nujoma to go to court for alleged killings-The former colonialists have no case to answer, so goes the logic.Let the reader understand.Munhuwei Nzonzo WindhoekA glance on the audience would give an estimation of about 70 people, about 40 per cent of whom where white.The white population in the whole of Namibia is about one per cent.An NGO had sponsored the lecture.They had paid the piper, and so the tune was theirs.Indeed, Professor Makumbe did not disappoint his paymasters – he was oratorical as he sensationalised and exaggerated the Zimbabwean situation, and made an emphatic conclusion that all the ills of Zimbabwe had been caused by Mugabe.Makumbe was making sweeping statements unbecoming of an intellectual whom we think he is.He lied that three million Zimbabwe dollars were worth about three Namibia dollars.”For you to survive in Zimbabwe you have to be corrupt”, said the professor, who himself is surviving in Zimbabwe.So, according to his own logic, Makumbe is corrupt.Zimbabwe is not under any sanctions, the audience was told.African leaders are protecting Mugabe because they are mismanaging their own countries as well, and that they also want to rule forever.The SADC initiative on Zimbabwe will not succeed.Namibia will go the way of Zimbabwe, prophesied the academic.Makumbe was emotional and personally attacked an Embassy of Zimbabwe official after the official had indicated that the profile on Makumbe had left out that he is a perennial government critic and opposition activist who cannot be expected to give a balanced discourse on Zimbabwe.Africa and Africans should learn, and learn fast.The donor community has a different agenda under the veneer of so called human rights, governance, democracy etc.Western money is causing Africa to fall apart.As an intellectual, Makumbe was supposed to draw parallels: For example, he was supposed to tell his audience why Nigeria, with worse human rights abuse records than Zimbabwe, continues to get Western support.The audience needed to be told why Uganda, a virtual one party-state, is never vilified by the western media.Makumbe mentioned the civil war in Zimbabwe, claiming that Mugabe killed 20 000 people, but did not mention how many civilians were killed by the Smith regime a few years earlier than the Zimbabwe civil war.Currently, in Namibia, an NGO wants the founding President Sam Nujoma to go to court for alleged killings-The former colonialists have no case to answer, so goes the logic.Let the reader understand.Munhuwei Nzonzo Windhoek
