Church in the World

Mugabe 'damaging all Africa'

Africa

Archbishop Desmond Tutu last week said that Zimbabwe under the dictatorial rule of President Robert Mugabe was jeopardising the rest of Africa's chances of securing international aid and debt relief. In an interview that coincided with last weekend's meeting in London of the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialised nations, Archbishop Tutu told South Africa's Sunday Independent newspaper that the world needed to see that "we [in Africa] do really care about things like freedom, justice and freedom of association . . . the basic freedoms for which we fought". Countries like Zimbabwe, he said, made "almost a mockery of our saying that we are committed to these things and it makes it difficult for our friends".

At their meeting in London on 4 and 5 February, the G7 leaders agreed to seek a means to provide 100 per cent relief of debts owed by poor countries, but did not agree on how to finance the cancellation of that debt, 80 per cent of which is owed to the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, said Britain would provide ?27 m. of relief to 19 of the world's poorest countries this year.

While Mr Brown hailed what he said was evidence of "the rich countries hearing the voices of the poor", he has not persuaded other G7 countries to follow his lead. Scepticism about governance in debtor countries is a crucially important factor in the resistance that plans to write off debts are encountering. The Marshall-style aid plan for Africa that Britain is pushing for this year cannot possibly succeed while so many African governments are unaccountable, at best, and tyrannical kleptocracies at worst.
Ideas on how to write off IMF debt will be discussed again at a G7 summit in April.

Archbishop Tutu said in his interview that he supported the idea of a "Marshall Plan" indeed he had suggested something similar a few years ago on a visit to Washington, but he said it was important to be able to exclude countries that did not abide by democratic principles. It would be wonderful, he said, if it were possible to say to a country, " you are not abiding by the standards we have set and so your membership is suspended until you toe the line". The world would then see that Africa was serious about "getting rid of the legacy of our past".
Archbishop Tutu said that he had always held President Mugabe "in the highest possible regard", but "something peculiar happened and I don't know what it is". It was important to condemn what was happening in Zimbabwe, he said, "for the sake of all of us".

His remarks were in distinct contrast with those of Nelson Mandela when he gave his support to the MakePovertyHistory campaign in London's Trafalgar Square last Friday. The former South African president said that three steps needed on the part of developed nations to eradicate world poverty were trade justice, debt relief and increased aid. He made no mention, however, of the responsibility of debtor nations to ensure good governance, without which any measures from outside would be ineffectual.
James Roberts