Argument by SADC leaders that the problems of Zimbabwe are for Zimbabweans to solve is mean. SADC leaders know better from their close association with Mugabe and their excuse of silent diplomacy is a portrayal of the whole bunch as lacking guts to tell the man, "back off, and stop tyrannising people!" These leaders are actually accomplices in what Mugabe is doing and they know it.
In the era of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the hands-off Zimbabwe policy, adopted by SADC, makes nonsense of the fuss about Darfur and other flashpoints where human rights violations may be occurring. The world was concerned about Ian Smith racially-conceived UDI and apartheid South Africa. SADC's Frontline states concept reflected this prevailing trend of regarding other people's business as one's own business. Nobody ever thought or said the problems of these countries were theirs alone and other countries must stop poking their noses in these problems. Nor did governments and organisations engage in fighting apartheid because the whites were the culprits. Tyranny has no colour. A tyrant is a tyrant whether white, black, foreign or domestic.
