 South Africa signed a defence and intelligence pact with its neighbour Zimbabwe yesterday, spurning attempts by western governments to isolate the Harare government of Robert Mugabe. Under the agreement, the two countries will share information on security issues, while Zimbabwean pilots and instructors will travel to South Africa for training. At the signing in Cape Town, Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa's intelligence minister, said: "This ... further consolidates a long-standing socio-political and economic relationship between our two countries." Zimbabwe's problems were no different to those faced by other countries that had come through a colonial past, he added. | "Just a bit of post-colonial angst, you know. Nothing to see here, move along." |
South Africa, roundly criticised for not taking a stronger line against Mr Mugabe, has vowed to continue working with Zimbabwe's government to try to solve that country's difficulties. Charles Nqakula, the South African safety and security minister, said: "We are not going to do anything based on some of the populism chants that happen on our soil and elsewhere that is going to upset that programme." | Translation: "All you white folk, start packing." |
Yesterday's deal comes at a time when Europe and the United States are increasing pressure on Mr Mugabe's government, which has been widely accused of vote rigging and human rights abuses. | Oh looky, it's the fault of the US, again. |
Zimbabwe is reeling from its worst economic and political crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, triggered nearly entirely in part by government seizures of white-owned farms. It blames its problems on a western campaign of sanctions and isolation, led by Britain and the US, following its land reforms. | Look up Zimbabwe in Crisis in the dictionary, and yup, there's a smirking picture of ol' Chimpy McHalliburton. |
It has promised to continue its war of words with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the US president, George Bush, and has warned South Africa about foreigners trying to interfere in the affairs of African states. "The greatest threat to the stability of the region, and Zimbabwe in particular, is the threat of exogenous influences whose aim is to effect regime change, especially in regards to my country," Dydimus Mutasa, a Zimbabwean minister of state, said. Meanwhile, the defence minister, Sydney Sekeramayi, claimed accounts of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe were merely imagined. |