Let Zimbabwe go

Extract from: An Open Letter to Mbeki | Online Only | Granta

"Dear Mr Mbeki,

Something, call it instinct, tells me you won’t be poring over the Granta website any time soon, so I do not believe that you will read this letter.

And if by an accident of the mouse-click, you find yourself directed to this page, I do not flatter myself that my insignificant scribbling will make a dent in your legendary mulishness. But I write to you, Mr Mbeki, because I have to.

‘The solution to the problem of Zimbabwe lies in the hands of the people of Zimbabwe,’ you said at the United Nations in New York on April 16, 2008. I acknowledge your use of the word ‘problem’, Mr Mbeki. The last statement you made in public prior to this was when you said the situation in Zimbabwe was ‘not a crisis’, before going off to repeat the same words at the Southern African Development Community summit on April 12...."
- by Petina Gappah