Zanu ain't no heroic Cubans

In the last week two interesting more pieces have been written about Zimbabwe and what it portends for South Africa.

In the first, Gavins Evans, former journalist, and member of the ANC underground tells of his travels to Zimbabwe in the 80's. Evans worked and recruited for MK the ANC's armed wing.

He tells of the ANC's difficulties with ZANU and the awareness of ZAPU persecution, but that Real politik made them look the other way. Evans has a little sympathy for ZANU. Afterall Britain had not met their obligations for land reform he says.

Evan's lists why he thinks South Africa will be different. And the answer is primarily a much more active civil society.


Jeremy Cronin
Originally uploaded by BOOKphotoSA.


In the second, Jeremy Cronin, the South African Communist parties deputy general secretary, echoes much of Evan's thought. South Africa's battles were fought by trade unions, journalists and a plethora of other civil society groups he says.


And interestingly he alludes to the fact, as I mentioned in a previous post, that it is precisely because MK was unsuccessful militarily that one of he primary engines of potential ZANUfication is not present in SA. The ANC had to rely on the broad South African public.

Cronin also has this to say about Mugabe's insistence that its Britain's fault the land reform program failed.

We are told, for instance, that ‘land reform’ did not succeed because the British failed to meet their financial obligations as agreed in the Lancaster House negotiations. But what kind of heroic anti-imperialist liberation movement is this? Can you imagine the Cubans arguing two decades after their revolutionary breakthrough that they had not implemented land reform because the US refused to subsidise it?

Well said.

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