African leaders etch lasting imprint on Earth Summit
Posted: Friday, October 25, 2002

For many years to come, the UN Earth Summit in Johannesburg will be remembered for three things.

First, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia pointing his index finger in the direction of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and telling him: "The Honourable Tony Blair is here, and he created the situation in Zimbabwe."

Second, the prolonged applause and the standing ovation that President Mugabe received from the 1 500 heads of state, government officials and NGO representatives for his "land-redistribution" speech, the only leader among the 100 who spoke at the Summit to be so accorded a standing ovation.

Third, is the booing and jeering of the US Secretary of State, Collin Powell, the highest-ranking black person in the Bush Administration, when he took a swipe at Zimbabwe a day after Mugabe’s landmark speech.

No matter on which side you are on, these were truly landmark incidents that will make the powers that be sit up and look at the way they are currently running the world.

For three years (since 1999) Western governments and their media (with Britain leading the charge) had created the impression that Cde Mugabe was existing in splendid isolation and that the whole world was against him. The world spoke loud and clear, when they gave Mugabe the standing ovation.

And it was not even President Mugabe who started it all. It was President Sam Nujoma from Namibia.

Before coming to the Summit, the Namibian president had warned white farmers in his country who own "80 percent of the farmland" there, to look at Zimbabwe and read the writings on the wall.

"If those arrogant white farm owners and absentee landlords do not embrace the government’s policy of willing-buyer willing-seller now, it will be too late tomorrow," Nujoma said, showing that his and his nation’s patience was running out. MORE 

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