I've Fought Mugabe for 20 Years - And Now I'm Fighting Him Closeup!

Friday was again filled with the specter of Zimbabwe. In the late afternoon, I went to a seminar at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). I was hoping to hear Thendai Biti, the man with the unenviable job of Zimbabwe's new Minister of Finance, but he cancelled at the last minute, replaced by an articulate spokesman. Also present were Arthur Mutambara, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Chair of the Zimbabwe’s Social Forum and Elinor Sisulu, director of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Board.

Arthur Mutambara spoke last, and as the leader of a small faction of the MDC, was the most senior political figure there. He has an impressive pedigree (DPhil from Oxford, lecturer at MIT) and a strong oratory style which got the audience worked up ... but I also found him the least convincing of any of the speakers; he ranted on about the threat of the US and England invading Zimbabwe (what other Zimbabwean has blathered that incessantly for propaganda purposes recently?) and he declared that SADC would be coerced into a better regional organization some time in the future. He also repeatedly held forth on how the Government of National Unity (GNU) was the only way for Zimbabwe to go. A geek like me would point out that stands for 'GNU is Not Unity'. But Mutambara also produced my favourite quote from the evening: I've been fighting Mugabe for 20 years - and now I'm fighting him from close up!