No amount of suffering by Zimbabwe’s estimated 10 million remaining people convinces President Robert Mugabe, the military-backed dictator, to accept a little inconvenience for himself. A long-time human-rights violator, he rules on the strength of thugs and guns, and the public pays his price, too often in blood.

At street level, the suffering’s intense. Hyperinflation destroys the national economy. Only 10 per cent of the people have jobs. Food, fuel and consumer goods are in short supply. A cholera epidemic rages. The capital city’s water and sewage systems have broken down. Most schools and hospitals are closed. Hundreds of thousands of people face immediate threats from disease. Some estimates suggest that a million may starve within a year. Yet 84-year-old Mugabe, a demon in countless nightmares, refuses to depart.

Power-sharing talks between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have stalled repeatedly. International pressure from nearby countries prompted Mugabe to make a show of holding such talks and even to sign a power-sharing agreement. But as seen in the regular sham “election campaigns”, his notion of sharing power means keeping it and the privileges.

In thug style, Mugabe and his supporters used fierce intimidation and deadly violence to “win” last June’s runoff election. Too many opposition figures disappeared or died. Tsvangirai, often a victim of false arrest and beatings, withdrew, refusing to continue in a “violent, illegitimate sham of an election process”. So the tainted tyrant gained another “victory”.

Mugabe’s ZANU party has “won” every dubious election since national independence from Britain in 1980. Back in 1987, he changed the constitution to promote himself to president from prime minister.

When Mugabe finally departs, whether exiled or entering the eternal flames, Zimbabwe will become a happier, healthier and more prosperous place. There’s no other direction it could go.

ARCHIVES