As you have seen and heard, body bags of cholera victims mostly women and children, continue to pile up at dysfunctional and abandoned hospitals in Zimbabwe while 13 000 people are already infected with the disease, according to the most recent United Nations Report. The crisis also comes at a time when more than half of Zimbabwe's population is facing an imminent threat of hunger and starvation. Where is the Southern Africa Development Community as this preventable horror continues to unfold in Zimbabwe? As SADC heads of states, you have once again profoundly betrayed the people of Zimbabwe as you have done throughout your existence.

What is happening in Zimbabwe is a shame to all Africans, particularly you who wield political power in the neighboring Southern African bloc (SADC). It is a mockery to the African's quest for independence. Looking at the governance crisis that has plagued Zimbabwe for so long, one might argue that when Ian Smith, former Prime Minister of the Rhodesia, declared unilateral independence from Britain in 1965 stating that he would not allow black majority rule in a thousand years, he probably knew what he was talking about.

Jestina Mukoko

Smith, a controversial colonialist, probably worked with the assumption that by doing so, it would be disastrous as black people were incapable of ruling themselves. In spite of his racial misgivings, he made sure that the people did not starve, the hospitals never shut down, diseases were under control, social amenities were functioning while jobs were abundantly available. It is also important to remember that this happened at a time when Rhodesia was under international sanctions, for reasons stated above. But again there are indubitable and clear cases of success stories that SADC boasts. Nelson Mandela, Festus Mogae and Khama epitomize statesmanship, grace and class.

While the rest of you were intoxicated with promoting Thabo Mbeki's fantasies of an open-ended quiet diplomacy which was overflowing with implausible remedies, you were sufficiently warned on several occasions that such a scheme was unworkable. Even though Mbeki was eventually made to squirm with embarrassment after his ANC party ousted him through a no-confidence vote, his ghost as a coconspirator in nurturing Robert Mugabe's rule lingers on.

Four months ago soon after his ouster, I wrote an article entitled Indictment of Thabo Mbeki (www.nationalvision.wordpress.com) arguing that Mbeki has left office at a time when Zimbabwe is at the crossroads and in a complete mess, a mess he helped to create by his collusion with Mugabe in entrenching the Zimbabwean dictatorship. While Mbeki's influence in Zimbabwean politics has long fizzled out, Zimbabweans will forever remember him as the chief enabler of the dictatorship across the Limpopo.

Mugabe's slow response (or lack thereof) in dealing with the cholera crisis is two-pronged. The main reason is that his government has been bankrupt for quite some time now given the 231 million percent inflation inter alia, a product of egregious economic mismanagement hence Zimbabwe's health delivery system has been brought to its knees. Secondly it comes as no surprise given his government's disdain for the poor communities in the suburbs which he previously punished for overwhelmingly supporting the opposition party.

You will recall that in 2005 Mugabe caused a humanitarian crisis after he unleashed armed police who went on a rampage called 'Operation Murambatsvina' destroying homes in the suburbs which left about 700 000 people homeless, according to the International Crisis Group and the UN-sanctioned Tibaijuka Report. Ironically, his exclusionary policies have always isolated the poor such that he has created more poverty in Zimbabwe.

You are well aware that Zimbabwe's problems are all centered on a political crisis created by Mugabe. Your failure to denounce and punish Mugabe's actions continue to represent a scandalous travesty of democracy. When the international community particularly US, EU and Commonwealth (which eventually suspended Zimbabwe for that reason) denounced the 2002 presidential elections in Zimbabwe as a stolen election many in SADC endorsed the election as free and fair.

The current acting South African President Kgalema Motlanthe is a known ally of Mugabe who as head of the South Africa observer mission, shamelessly validated Zimbabwe's rigged 2002 elections declaring them as 'completely free and fair', just like many (if not all) in SADC. Electoral fraud was repeated during the 2008 elections that were still won by the MDC, according to official results. With your approval, Mugabe refused to go saying "We are not going to give up because of a mere X. How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?" The US and the international community dismissed them as 'a sham election'. As SADC you should have enabled Morgan Tsvangirai to become President and disabled Mugabe for stealing the election.

Only three voices have stood with the people of Zimbabwe in their time of need including that of the late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa. The other two are President Khama of Botswana and Prime Minister Odinga of Kenya. The rest of you have profoundly betrayed the people of Zimbabwe.

When the genocide of Rwanda was taking place, most African leaders professed ignorance about the existence of the crisis. Now the crisis has been brewing in your backyard with the threat spilling over tour countries. Will you continue to fold your arms or you will join the international chorus to rid Zimbabwe of a dictator whose so-called sovereignty revolution has come to devour its children? In this day and age, true sovereignty should be about conquering poverty, hunger, disease, fear and ignorance.

As I write to you, state-sponsored political violence is again on the increase in Zimbabwe. This also comes at a time when one of the butchers of the people of Zimbabwe, Elliot Manyika, died in a car crash over the weekend. He will be dearly missed (by The Hague). It is every peace-loving Zimbabwean's hope that this man will be tried posthumously without delay because the heinous crimes he committed are all documented. I can guarantee you that most of the children of Zimbabwe are celebrating over the end of such a sad chapter that personified violence, death and destruction!

Barely a week ago, Jestina Mukoko, a high proile human rights monitor and activist was abducted and her whereabouts are still unknown. God forbid, the prospects of finding her alive are dim if what happened to several former abductees is anything to go by. Activists who suffered gruesome murder after abductions include Joshua Bakacheza and Edward Chikomba. Only Mugabe and his men know what happened. There is already an outrage as more than 1000 people have already signed up to a Facebook petition demanding that Robert Mugabe spares the life of this lady wherever his hangmen are holding her. In addition, 12 MDC activists who were abducted last month are still missing and feared dead. None of you spoke in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.

When violent farm seizures sponsored by Mugabe and his men (most notably Elliot Manyika) led to brutal murders of white farmers together with their black farm-workers, no one spoke a word. We now hear that as you begin to import our cholera you finally contemplating putting diplomatic pressure on Mugabe. It is a case of too little too late but the people of Zimbabwe will appreciate whatever help they get to be unyoked from the grip of the tyrant, your 'comrade'. I have personally written extensively about the need to rise against Mugabe by the people of Zimbabwe, but they need your moral support.

Zimbabwean people are pleading for your help. If you cannot convince Mugabe to agree on a fair power-sharing deal with the MDC then SADC must collectively put an end to his rule as correctly advocated by Botswana. A fortnight ago, Botswana called upon Zimbabwe's neighbours to push for regime change by sealing all borders such that "If no petrol went in (Zimbabwe) for a week, he (Mugabe) can't last. South Africa alone has the capacity to embargo Zimbabwe effectively enough to bring about the necessary changes in the country. There is no doubt that Zimbabwe is operating as a province of South Africa, its lifeline, in order to sustain itself.

What is really stopping you from taking action against Mugabe? Is it pan-Africanism? Zimbabwe is not a private enterprise for Mugabe and his friends, it belongs to that mother displaced by poverty in Zimbabwe, crawling under the precarious barbed fence of South Africa in desperate search for food. The country also belongs to the unemployed youths swimming across the crocodile infested Limpopo River into South Africa. To the refugee or asylum seeker humiliated time and again in foreign lands. Zimbabwe also belonged to the hundreds who have died under the hands of a vicious dictator as well as those who died from xenophobic attacks in the streets of South Africa.

As SADC you have set a distasteful precedent for Zimbabwe by allowing losers to form a unity government. You have failed to see beyond Mugabe because behind him are aspiring dictators, capable of becoming more lethal than him. The very men who committed the most heinous crime against the people of Zimbabwe (in Matebeleland during 1980's, in 2002 and 2008 presidential elections) are the ones playing the power game. That is why it is quite chilling to note that you have helped to create a monster that will continue to give our generation headaches, after you are long gone.

In the meantime, as the agony of the people of Zimbabwe intensifies who among you has a conscience? Now is the time to raise your moral threshold in light of the humanitarian crisis and the searing political turmoil. If you are serious about seeing the people of Zimbabwe experiencing change, we must see that change in you first. While it is a Herculean undertaking to convince Mugabe to step down, power-sharing is not an option. It is time to act!

Dr Paul Mutuzu

Dr Paul Mutuzu paulmutuzu@hotmail.com is Co-Founder, National Vision Institute