Ronnie’s support for Robert

Last week Ronnie Kasrils, the former Minister of Intelligence, showed very clearly that he supports Robert Mugabe’s tyranny in Zimbabwe. Kasrils was speaking on SAFM radio about Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Kasrils said that we must “put pressure on that murdering regime called Israel”. He condemned Israeli atrocities. He urged the world to “shout as loudly as possible” against Israel.

He said pressure against apartheid had worked and suggested it would work against Israel.

He is right to argue that the condemnation of apartheid by foreign governments did help end it. Condemning the apartheid system had two immeasurable benefits. First it shamed the masters of apartheid and forced them to re-think the consequences of their actions. Second it gave heart to the people suffering under it. It gave them encouragement and hope.

So Kasrils knows very clearly that condemning the murdering regime of Robert Mugabe would help to bring it to an end. It would give heart to the people of Zimbabwe suffering under Mugabe’s brutal, illegitimate rule.

But he does nothing of the sort. He served in the South African Cabinet from 1994 to 2004 and never publicly condemned Mugabe’s tyranny. His silence continues.

After the early 1980s, when Mugabe slaughtered around twenty thousand black people in operation Gukurahundi, nobody, including Kasrils, could have had any doubt about his evil reign. Since then Mugabe has wrecked the economy and driven the Zimbabwean people into hunger and despair while he himself lives in sumptuous luxury.

He has murdered, mutilated, tortured, beaten and gang-raped people who vote against him. He has reduced the life expectancy of black people by over 20 years. His army invaded the DRC, looting and plundering. He has run crooked elections marked by terror, vote-rigging and suppression of the opposition.

In operation Murambatsvina (“kick out the trash”), he drove nearly a million black people out of their homes. Now, after losing a rigged election, he holds power by force.

So why doesn’t Kasrils “shout as loudly as possible” against Mugabe’s crimes? Why doesn’t he urge the world to “put pressure” on Mugabe?

The only explanation is that he supports all Robert Mugabe’s actions. Kasrils cares about the Palestinian people 8 000km away but not about the African people on his border.

And the ANC seems to agree with him completely.