SMS+the+DA+to+stop+Mugabe+loan,+Leon

Letters, The Star, Johannesburg, August 17, 2005
=SMS the DA to stop the Mugabe loan=

Right now our government is considering lending billions of taxpayers' rands to the Zimbabwean government. It is doing this without having consulted the ordinary citizens whose money it is.

Since 2000, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government has subjected Zimbabweans to rigged elections, violence, intimidation, disastrous economic policies, the political manipulation of food aid and a "clean-up operation" so cruel and indiscriminate that the United Nations condemned it as a "clear violation of international law."

By providing Mugabe with this money we will be helping him to continue running his country into the ground. The loan is not aid money, and it will not find its way to the poorest people of Zimbabwe who need it the most. There is also little chance that South Africa will be able to get Mugabe to change by giving him the loan.

Thousands of South Africans have already voiced their opinions on the loan by sending SMS's with the word "stop", followed by their comments, to 34568. The messages (which cost R2 and do not create any profit for the DA) are published on the DA website (www.da.org.za), and so far they have revealed just how strongly South Africans oppose the government's plans to grant the loan.

We trust that President Thabo Mbeki will also take heed of these views when we send the messages to him.


 * Tony Leon, MP**
 * Leader of the Democratic Alliance**


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=228&fArticleId=2839556**