US interest in Zim welcome

IT is heartening that after only a week in the Oval Office, US President Barack Obama found time in his schedule to phone South African President Kgalema Motlanthe this week to discuss the dire situation in Zimbabwe, and South Africa‘s role in bringing about political change there. Clearly this is a matter that concerns him, and so it should. With more than 3000 killed by cholera and a further 60000 infected, unemployment at 94 per cent, widespread starvation and inflation of more than 231 million per cent, Zimbabwe is a nation on the brink of irreversible collapse. Quick, decisive and effective action is needed if the country is to have any hope of recovery.

According to the White House, Obama told Motlanthe to get tougher on Zimbabwe and emphasized the importance of South Africa‘s leadership role.

The nudge was clearly prompted by the Southern African Development Community‘s general lack of success in creating a workable power-sharing government in Zimbabwe, as well as its inability to keep Mad Bob in his place. There is also a hint in Obama‘s words that the new guard in the US will be paying closer attention to Southern Africa in the months to come, and perhaps even getting involved should the latest round of talks stall yet again.

Although progress was made this week, with the SADC deciding at a summit on Tuesday that a unity government should be formed by next month, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has warned that the deal could be derailed by long-running disputes over the sharing of power.

And offering Mugabe a golden handshake to leave office, as suggested by Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday, is certainly not the right way to go about fixing the problem. Paying a tyrannical despot millions of dollars in severance sends entirely the wrong message and would only encourage more unsavoury ambitions among some African politicians.

However, Odinga‘s criticism of the SADC for its “kid gloves” approach in dealing with Mugabe is spot on.

With so many already dead and the lives of many thousands more in the balance, the time for negotiation and gentle persuasion is over. The leaders of Africa, and the rest of the world, must stand together and tell Mugabe that his time has come to leave – quickly and quietly.

Absurd bid to control sport

THE absurd proposal from the department of sport that our national sports bodies be required by law to submit the teams they select to the government for approval amounts to gross political interference. It defies all logic and again is indicative of the arrogant “big brother knows best” thinking prevalent in the modern ANC.

Fortunately, it appears that some sanity has at least prevailed and the proposal has been provisionally withdrawn. But the very thought that officials in the department could even consider such a ridiculous move is cause for grave concern, as is the fact that the proposal could be amended and resubmitted.

Also, the suggestion that Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile apparently had no knowledge of the sinister machinations of those who report to him is indicative of his lack of control of his department.

Clearly, those mentally challenged officials who have drawn up this proposal failed to consider the fact that should our sports bodies be forced to adhere to such a Draconian regulation they would in all likelihood be barred from participating internationally. The International Olympic Committee and Fifa, among others, do not allow any political interference in sport. Thus, if this idiotic proposal became law it could well impact on our hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

And to think taxpayers actually pay these fools to come up with this nonsense.

Opinion