September 22, 2009
South African President Jacob Zuma has reiterated his support for Zimbabwe’s inclusive Government, adding that his country has a direct interest in seeing its neighbour prosper.

His sentiments came soon after former Namibian president Cde Sam Nujoma told a Swapo rally over the weekend that his country and the rest of the region would not sit back and watch the West carry out their illegal regime change agenda to topple President Mugabe.

The support for Zimbabwe came as the United States admitted openly for the first time that it had sanctions on Zimbabwe, but said it would not be lifting them.

Addressing over 4 000 delegates at the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ 10th National Congress in Johannesburg yesterday, President Zuma said his African National Congress and its allies — the South African Communist Party and Cosatu — as well as Sadc were rallying behind Zimbabwe’s inclusive Government in order to find solutions to the current challenges.

"As the Alliance we must continue to assist the Zimbabweans to find solutions. We must emphasise the need for the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

"As neighbours, the Zimbabwean situation is real for us, it is not theoretical. We have a direct interest in the sustainable finalisation of the political settlement," said President Zuma.

Two weeks ago, President Zuma made a similar call as he handed over the Sadc chairmanship to DRC President Joseph Kabila.

Sadc leaders at the summit also said they were backing the inclusive Government and urged the West to lift the sanctions.

Over the weekend, Namibia’s founding president, Cde Nujoma, came out strongly against Western powers that funded opposition parties on the African continent and elsewhere in the world for their own interests and took exception to illegal attempts to topple President Mugabe.

"The white imperialists should be careful not to topple Cde President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, because if you touch Zimbabwe, then you touch Namibia and the whole Southern African Development Community."

He was addressing a Swapo star rally at Ongwediva in the Oshana region.

"It is because of the Western powers and those colonialists that oppositions are formed in our countries in the African continent and elsewhere in the world," he said.

Cde Nujoma said the US and Britain imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe because the Zimbabwean people had demanded their land from the white minority who were historically privileged by the racist colonial system.

"How could one impose sanctions against people who are demanding their own land? It was made that those who have too much land or many farms should give some to the Government so that the landless black people could be resettled there.

"The whites have been on our necks and colonised us for a long time, they crossed with our people through the Atlantic Ocean and made us slaves in their countries. ‘Omushiningwa iha dhimbwa, ashike omushiningi oye owala ha dhimbwa’. (The victim will not forget, but the wrongdoer will forget easily.)

"The whites must be careful, if they play with us we will thoroughly deal with them," Cde Nujoma said in his fiery speech.

He said imperialist countries were facing the prospect of poverty and were redoubling their efforts to loot African resources to sustain their own economies.

Cde Nujoma compared the white minorities who refused to fully integrate after African independence to a black mamba, which even if you keep it in a room for years, it would one day bite you.

"Whites are dangerous, just like a black mamba, if they oust President Mugabe, they will oust another president in the African continent," he said.

Last week, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson tacitly said Washington had imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.

The West and its allies in Zimbabwe have often denied the existence of sanctions on the country and instead claimed these were either "restrictive" or "targeted" measures.

However, Mr Carson added: "We reserve the right to lift those sanctions when we want to do so and when we see progress."

He said the sanctions were primarily "targeted at individuals".

Observers have questioned this claim, pointing out that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which provides the framework for the sanctions, has seen the US president placing an embargo on entities such as Ziscosteel, ZB Bank and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation which are not owned by any one individual. — CAJ News-New Era-Herald Reporter.