The latest offering from Zimbabwe is that any probe which is called for is stopped at source, prevented from happening, or just plain doesn’t happen.

This is a habit that has been going on since the 1980’s when the probe/report into the activities of the brutal Fifth Brigade during the Gukurahundi was blocked from any publication.

Today, I was not very surprised to read that the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has agreed with President Robert Mugabe that no probe into the disturbances at yesterday’s national conference to draw up a new constitution for Zimbabwe – even though the disturbances were clearly carried out by ZANU PF militants who sang revolutionary songs.

This is just one example of the disdain that the unity government is held in by Mugabe’s party. Just why Tsvangirai has decided to ally himself with Mugabe’s reluctance to have anything done in Zimbabwe, is beyond me.

Another example of just what Mugabe is blocking is a full audit of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. It is felt that many of the transactions carried out within the bank by its governor, Gideon Gono – a man who’s appointment is questionable and unilateral – are, quite frankly, illegal.

Not long ago, Gono admitted to having used account money to prop up Mugabe’s government – but Mugabe refuses to have Gono labelled a ‘thief’, nor is he allowing anyone to scour the records of any transactions – if at all any records exist…

Another area that is cause for some concern is the diamond find in the Eastern Highlands of the country. The Kimberley Process (The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, popularly known as KPCS, is a process introduced by United Nations resolution 55/56 that is designed to certify the origin of rough diamonds from sources which are free of conflict fuelled by diamond production. The process was established in 2003 to prevent rebel groups being financed by diamond sales. The certification scheme aims at preventing these “blood diamonds” from entering the mainstream rough diamond market. It was set up to assure consumers that by purchasing diamonds they were not financing war and human rights abuses - Wikipedia) recently produced a report on what they believed were ongoing human right abuses and illegal killings in the fields, to which the Zimbabwe government ordered the army to withdraw from the area.

The ZNA promptly told the government exactly where to get off, and refuse to be moved.

Military insubordination? No – a typical response by Mugabe-ites who would wish their illegal operation to not only to carry on, but need to have a hold over the people in the area and would not wish to lose that foothold in the diamond find.

I find it questionable that the RBZ governor is able to quantify, with apparent ease, the weekly loss in the diamond fields, and the country’s coffers remain empty.

Other probes and investigations that have been avoided or just ignored relate to the abduction of MDC activists, the killings of commercial farmers and their workers, the killings of MDC activists in last year’s political violence, and the apparent enrichment of Mugabe’s senior henchmen in the transportation and fuel sectors.

Mugabe no longer rules with disdain, but by a tolerance of the existence of the MDC and the population of Zimbabwe.

Not only does the prevention of probes not sanitise the mayhem that rule/ruins Zimbabwe, but it does little to ensure the sanity of that rule.

The Zimbabwean people are being fleeced in broad daylight, whilst national resources are being used to give succour to the few in a position to abuse the system.

And the Zimbabwean people, the world over, have just about had enough of it.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man