Whenever the crisis in Zimbabwe looks to be in danger of collapsing the fragile unity government, the principals call on SADC - who invite them all to a conference!

Life for one Robert Gabriel Mugabe must be quite easy because he can cause whatever pandemonium he wants with garish acts, raids and other dubious activities and when someone doesn’t like it, the answer is to go somewhere and talk about it.

They say that talk is cheap - but in this case it is exceedingly costly. Costly insofar as lifestyles in Zimbabwe are concerned. Costly insofar as the deteriorating standards of life in Zimbabwe are concerned.

And costly insofar as hosting the various negotiators, mediators and other interested personages in a foreign country are concerned.

Look at what Mugabe has achieved for more than a year of talking.

He has not done anything for the people of Zimbabwe, has not stood by the signed agreements he has with the two factions of the MDC (even though he says he has) and somehow, even though he lost the election in March 2008, his party continue to run (ruin?) Zimbabwe.

He is happy that his party do the ‘acceptable minimum’ to keep the perceived wolf at bay - and for some reason SADC are happy that his ‘efforts’ reflect his ‘commitment’ to the power-sharing government.

I do realise that nine times out of ten, talking, discussing, negotiating - call it what you will - has a place in resolving issues and making plans to sort things out - i.e. time frames - but when was SADC, the AU, the UN and the free world going to realise that nothing that Mugabe says or signs means anything more than a delay?

A delay in the achievement of democracy in Zimbabwe. A delay in the coming storm that Mugabe and his senior apologists will have to ride if they want to remain outside of a prison cell.

I have said it so many times in the recent past - each day that Mugabe remains in power is victory for him - because it is another 24 hours that he has withstood the wishes of the people, another 24 hours that he has stood on his own pathetic principles - and he remains standing.

I often ask why it is that the free world allows Mugabe to get away with murder - and let’s face it - what Mugabe is doing to the Zimbabwean people is resulting in deaths, deaths that he could have avoided…

Is the free world afraid that Mugabe might shout at them? He does that whether the free world says anything or not, so that excuse falls way short of the mark.

Is the free world afraid that Mugabe may insinuate that the resistance to his continued rule in Zimbabwe might be racially based? He will play the race card as often as he wants and has played it very liberally in the past.

Is the free world afraid of what they may find in the event that Mugabe is forced from the top job in Zimbabwe (by democratic means)? We are already beginning to see the destruction that his rule has wrought.

The Auditor General has already given us facts of corruption within just one governmental department - much more of this must be just waiting to be found.

Mugabe protects the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe who helped himself to foreign currency held in accounts held at the central bank. Mugabe claims that Gono is ‘no thief’, but the majority of that money remains unaccounted for.

Is this not theft? Is there anything new in this in Zimbabwe?

But the international bodies refuse to stand up and say, “Enough!”

“Enough of the talking, the excuses, the delays, the deception and the duplicity!”

Well, in the forlorn hope that someone with a backbone and the power to stand up against Mugabe may hear me, I say, “Enough of the talking already!”

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man