The Sunday News
ON his return from the 28th Ordinary Summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week, President Mugabe counseled African leaders on the need to stick to principles, ideology and founding values of the continental body.
The President was commenting on the return of Morocco to the African Union, after her expulsion in 1984 for colonising neighbouring Western Sahara in 1975. Although the status quo prevails regarding Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, some African countries allowed Morocco back into the organisation with 39 of the 54 countries carrying the day, amid strong resistance from countries in Southern Africa, which included Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Algeria.
“I think its lack of ideology…They (African leaders) have not had the same revolutionary experience as some of us and there is too much reliance on their erstwhile colonisers. We will still fight and see whether in fact Morocco is abandoning its occupation of parts of Sahrawi…Morocco has been working for quite a long time, building mosques here, giving money at times.
“The game is not lost. We will fight the issue to the end. But that is quite a blow to some of us; we believe in rules, in the principles and we have wanted to see Morocco declare at least, that yes, we have given up the claim of occupation,” he said.
We believe when President Mugabe speaks, Africa and the world should listen. Fellow African leaders should in fact take the wise counsel from President Mugabe because he has gone through all forms of weather in as far as continental and world politics is concerned, and remains one of the leading torch bearers of the liberation of Africa.
In the same vein, we note that most African leaders are beginning to realise what President Mugabe meant when he criticised the International Criminal Court, and urged Africa to pull out of it. We note that a few days ago, the ICC summonsed South Africa over its failure to carry out an “international arrest warrant” for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who was allowed on South African soil for a continental gathering in 2015. Although President Jacob Zuma defended the decision to let Bashir freely leave the country, saying he had immunity as a guest of the AU, those who support the ICC and the ICC itself believe South Africa has a case to answer.
However, South Africa, just like Zimbabwe, has voiced its concern over the conduct of the ICC, and even indicated that it will soon pull out of the international court. Burundi and the Gambia have also indicated their readiness to leave the ICC and at the recent gathering, the AU called for the mass withdrawal of member states from the ICC with media reports saying African leaders have adopted a strategy calling for a collective withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.
It was the latest expression of impatience by African leaders with the court, which has focused too narrowly on Africa while leaving out other parts of the world, especially the West.
In addition, African countries have been critical of the ICC for pursuing heads of state. Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been wanted by the court since 2009 for allegedly orchestrating atrocities in Darfur.
The ICC also caused an uproar among African nations by indicting Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta on charges of crimes against humanity for 2007 post-election violence in which more than 1,000 died. The case collapsed because of what the ICC prosecutor called lack of cooperation by Kenya’s government.
All these developments come after President Mugabe has been on the forefront, giving advice to fellow African leaders and speaking openly about the evil intentions of the ICC.
