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malonema1

Shock as Zimbabwe's Mugabe named WHO 'goodwill ambassador' | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...d-who-goodwill-ambassador.html

africa politics

shared by malonema1 on 23 Oct 17 - No Cached
  • GENEVA –  Shock and condemnation continued Saturday after Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was named a "goodwill ambassador" for the World Health Organization by the agency's first African leader.
  • The 93-year-old Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state, has long been criticized at home for going overseas for medical treatment as Zimbabwe's once-prosperous economy falls apart. Mugabe also faces United States sanctions over his government's human rights abuses.
  • "The government of Robert Mugabe presided over the dramatic reversal of its population's access to food, clean water, basic sanitation and health care," the group concluded. Mugabe's policies led directly to "the shuttering of hospitals and clinics, the closing of its medical school and the beatings of health workers."
krystalxu

How Robert Mugabe Held On - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...546476

politics Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe Africa policy history Crisis culture economic

shared by krystalxu on 21 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • To put his tenure in perspective, consider this: He withstood the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as its not-so-cold manifestations in Africa, where each superpower supported a litany of armed groups and dictators;
  • “It’s hard to understate his wiliness, his understanding of how to keep hold of the levers of power. He’s 93, and has allegedly dementia, but can still outmaneuver almost everybody.”
  • Mugabe at first seemed reluctant to go, but ultimately the father of modern Zimbabwe knew it was time for his country to turn the page.
cdavistinnell

Zimbabwe in limbo but Mugabe's exit is 'a done deal' - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Zimbabwe South Africa politics power

shared by cdavistinnell on 16 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Harare, Zimbabwe (CNN)The decades-long grip on power of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe appeared to be over on Thursday as his main opposition rival returned to the country amid efforts to form a transitional government.
  • Morgan Tsvangirai, who had been receiving cancer treatment abroad, returned to Harare after Wednesday's military takeover
  • talks were underway with military leaders about an administration that includes the opposition, with the tacit backing of key regional allies.
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  • Zimbabwe's military seized control of state institutions early Wednesday and placed Mugabe under house arrest, but insisted it was not staging a coup, throwing the country into political limbo.
  • "There is a transition of power underway and it has tacit agreement from regional powers,"
  • Key to any transitional administration will be Emmerson Mnangagwa, the powerful former Vice President, who was widely tipped to become the country's next leader. Mnangagwa was dismissed by Mugabe last week, in a decision that triggered the latest political turmoil.
  • Mnangagwa remains one of the most powerful figures in the country and derives much of his support from the military. He has not been sighted in Harare since he was fired and his whereabouts are still unknown.
  • In a sign that power in the country is quickly shifting, several of Mugabe's longtime allies are turning on him.
  • "There are military tanks on the streets, which has never happened before," said one Harare resident. "The military is obviously now in charge despite their insistence that it's not a coup. It is."
  • The US embassy in Harare urged Americans to "limit unnecessary movements." It said that while the US government "does not take sides in matters of internal Zimbabwean politics," it was deeply concerned by the military's actions and called for restraint.
  • Mugabe, the only leader most Zimbabweans have ever known, ruled the landlocked country for 37 years with an iron fist.
  • He rose to power as a freedom fighter and was seen as Zimbabwe's Nelson Mandela. But he quickly waged a campaign of oppression to consolidate his position, extinguishing the political opposition through violent crackdowns.
  • Mugabe's hardline policies also pushed the country into poverty. Its flourishing economy began to disintegrate after a program of land seizures from white farmers, and agricultural output plummeted and inflation soared.
anonymous

Zimbabwe's President Mugabe resigns - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-africa-42071488

africa president resign Zimbabwe

shared by anonymous on 21 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has resigned, parliament speaker Jacob Mudenda has said.A letter from Mr Mugabe said that the decision was voluntary and that he had made it to allow a smooth transfer of power
  • The surprise announcement halted an impeachment hearing that had begun against him.Lawmakers roared in jubilation and people have begun celebrating in the streets.
  • He has been in power since independence in 1980. Mr Mugabe has won elections, but over the past 15 years these have been marred by violence against political opponents.He has presided over a deepening economic crisis in Zimbabwe, where people are on average 15% poorer now than they were in 1980.
knudsenlu

Zimbabwe opposition promises push for reform after new cabinet revealed | World news | ... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...abe-cabinet-emmerson-mnangagwa

zimbabwe reform world news

shared by knudsenlu on 01 Dec 17 - No Cached
  • Opposition activists in Zimbabwe have said they will launch a fresh campaign to bring democratic reforms to the impoverished southern African country after the new president announced a fresh cabinet with key roles for veterans of the ruling Zanu-PF party and senior soldiers but no posts for the opposition.
  • Emmerson Mnangagwa took power after a military takeover and popular protests ousted Robert Mugabe last week, and many had hoped the 75-year-old would give leading opposition politicians significant roles in an “inclusive” government in line with his promises to reach out to all “patriotic Zimbabweans” and build a “full democracy”.
  • “Now we the citizens have to regroup and [fight] for a normal elected political authority.”
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • It will also complicate negotiations for the massive financial aid Zimbabwe needs to repair the damage done to the once-thriving economy over recent decades.
  • The British government, which wants to engage in southern Africa through its former colony, will be particularly disappointed.
  • The announcement comes after a series of court judgments sent mixed signals. Former associates of Mugabe have been hit with fraud charges and are in custody, but one well-known democracy activist was acquitted on Thursday of charges of subversion.
  • Samm Farai Monro, the network’s creative director and one of Zimbabwe’s best known comedians, said: “That these baseless and trumped-up charges are still sticking is a very worrying sign about how the new government views freedom of expression.
krystalxu

The Nationalist's Delusion - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...546356

politics Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe policy Crisis

shared by krystalxu on 23 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
  • he came within striking distance of defeating incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, earning 43 percent of the vote.
  • Duke picked up nearly 60 percent of the white vote.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • He even tried to appeal to black voters, buying a 30-minute ad in which he declared,
  • “I’m not your enemy.”
  • He was a former Klan leader who had showed up to public events in a Nazi uniform and lied about having served in the Vietnam War, a cartoonishly vain supervillain whose belief in his own status as a genetic Übermensch was belied by his plastic surgeries.
  • Birtherism is rightly remembered as a racist conspiracy theory, born of an inability to accept the legitimacy of the first black president.
  • American history as glorious idealism unpolluted by base tribalism
criscimagnael

Desmond Tutu, Whose Voice Helped Slay Apartheid, Dies at 90 - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...desmond-tutu-dead.html

shared by criscimagnael on 27 Dec 21 - No Cached
  • Desmond M. Tutu, the cleric who used his pulpit and spirited oratory to help bring down apartheid in South Africa and then became the leading advocate of peaceful reconciliation under Black majority rule, died on Sunday in Cape Town. He was 90.
  • “a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.”
  • The cause of death was cancer, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said, adding that Archbishop Tutu had died in a care facility.
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  • His voice was a powerful force for nonviolence in the anti-apartheid movement, earning him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
  • “You are overwhelmed by the extent of evil,” he said. But, he added, it was necessary to open the wound to cleanse it. In return for an honest accounting of past crimes, the committee offered amnesty, establishing what Archbishop Tutu called the principle of restorative — rather than retributive — justice.
  • Archbishop Tutu preached that the policy of apartheid was as dehumanizing to the oppressors as it was to the oppressed. At home, he stood against looming violence and sought to bridge the chasm between Black and white; abroad, he urged economic sanctions against the South African government to force a change of policy.
  • But as much as he had inveighed against the apartheid-era leadership, he displayed equal disapproval of leading figures in the dominant African National Congress, which came to power under Nelson Mandela in the first fully democratic elections in 1994.
  • “many, too many, of our people live in grueling, demeaning, dehumanizing poverty.”
  • “We are sitting on a powder keg,” he said.
  • the archbishop remained unhappy about the state of affairs in his country under its next president, Jacob G. Zuma, who had denied Mr. Mbeki another term despite being embroiled in scandal.
  • “I think we are at a bad place in South Africa,” Archbishop Tutu told The New York Times Magazine in 2010, “and especially when you contrast it with the Mandela era. Many of the things that we dreamed were possible seem to be getting more and more out of reach. We have the most unequal society in the world.”
  • This government, our government, is worse than the apartheid government,” he said, “because at least you were expecting it with the apartheid government.”
  • In elections in 2016, while still under the leadership of Mr. Zuma, the party’s share of the vote slipped to its lowest level since the end of apartheid. Mr. Ramaphosa struggled to reverse that trend, but earned some praise later for his robust handling of the coronavirus crisis.
  • Politics were inherent in his religious teachings. “We had the land, and they had the Bible,” he said in one of his parables. “Then they said, ‘Let us pray,’ and we closed our eyes. When we opened them again, they had the land and we had the Bible. Maybe we got the better end of the deal.”
  • Although Archbishop Tutu, like other Black South Africans of his era, had suffered through the horrors and indignities of apartheid, he did not allow himself to hate his enemies.
  • He coined the phrase “rainbow nation” to describe the new South Africa emerging into democracy, and called for vigorous debate among all races.
  • Archbishop Tutu had always said that he was a priest, not a politician, and that when the real leaders of the movement against apartheid returned from jail or exile he would serve as its chaplain.
  • But Archbishop Tutu did not stay entirely out of the nation’s business.
  • While he never forgot his father’s shame when a white policeman called him “boy” in front of his son, he was even more deeply affected when a white man in a priest’s robe tipped his hat to his mother, he said.
  • When Desmond was hospitalized with tuberculosis, Father Huddleston visited him almost every day. “This little boy very well could have died,” Father Huddleston told an interviewer many years later, “but he didn’t give up, and he never lost his glorious sense of humor.”
  • After his recovery, Desmond wanted to become a doctor, but his family could not afford the school fees. Instead he became a teacher, studying at the Pretoria Bantu Normal College and earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Africa. He taught high school for three years but resigned to protest the Bantu Education Act, which lowered education standards for Black students.
  • By then he was married to Nomalizo Leah Shenxane, a major influence in his life
  • He was named Anglican dean of Johannesburg in 1975 and consecrated bishop of Lesotho the next year. In 1978 he became the first Black general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, and began to establish the organization as a major force in the movement against apartheid.
  • Under Bishop Tutu’s leadership, the council established scholarships for Black youths and organized self-help programs in Black townships. There were also more controversial programs: Lawyers were hired to represent Black defendants on trial under the security laws, and support was provided for the families of those detained without trial.
  • A month after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, Desmond Tutu became the first Anglican bishop of Johannesburg when the national church hierarchy intervened to break a deadlock between Black and white electors. He was named archbishop of Cape Town in 1986, becoming spiritual head of the country’s 1.5 million Anglicans, 80 percent of whom were Black.
  • “I am a man of peace, but not a pacifist.”
  • In an interview in the early 1980s, he said: “Blacks don’t believe that they are introducing violence into the situation. They believe that the situation is already violent.”
  • He remained equally outspoken even in later years. In 2003 he criticized his own government for backing Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, who had a long record of human rights abuses.
  • On his frequent trips abroad during the apartheid era, Archbishop Tutu never stopped pressing the case for sanctions against South Africa. The government struck back and twice revoked his passport, forcing him to travel with a document that described his citizenship as “undetermined.”
  • Still, when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its final findings in 2003, Archbishop Tutu’s imprint was plain. It warned the government against issuing a blanket amnesty to perpetrators of the crimes of apartheid and urged businesses to join with the government in delivering reparations to the millions of Black people victimized by the former white minority government.
  • Archbishop Tutu officially retired from public duties in 2010. One of his last major appearances came that year, when South Africa hosted the World Cup
  • But he did not retreat from the public eye entirely. In June 2011, he joined Michelle Obama at the new Cape Town Stadium, built for the tournament, where she was promoting physical fitness during a tour of southern Africa.
  • In 2021, as he approached his 90th birthday, he pitched into a fraught debate as disinformation about coronavirus vaccines swirled.
  • “There is nothing to fear,” he said. “Don’t let Covid-19 continue to ravage our country, or our world. Vaccinate.”
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