Media Talk: Zimbabwe in Meltdown

With Zimbabwe spiralling out of control, can Mugabe be ousted, who can rebuild a shattered nation and why are Zimbabwe neighbours doing so little?

Another Mugabe crackdown on the opposition in Zimbabwe resulted in 50 arrests and with the leader of the main opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai severely beaten. Another opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa was beaten unconscious in Harare airport as he was about to fly to Brussels.

With little or no support from African nations, all attempts to change the brutal regime in Zimbabwe by the West remain unsuccessful, while Mugabe indicated that he is going to run for office in the 2008 elections again. 

Our panel discusses the ways of changing the status quo in this poverty-ridden country.

Wilf Mbanga is the Founder, Publisher and Editor of The Zimbabwean newspaper, author of Van Onze Correspondent and co-author of Seretse and Ruth Khama.

Gugulethu Moyo is the International Bar Association lawyer on rule of law and human rights issues in Southern Africa.

Bill Saidi is the deputy editor of The Standard in Zimbabwe (NB! Bill Saidi is not speaking on behalf of the newspaper). Via phone link.

Daniel Howden is Deputy Foreign Editor of the Independent. He recently returned from Zimbabwe.

Lord Triesman, Minister for Africa at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in unfortunately unable to attend due to urgent Foreign Office business.

Moderated by Allan Little, BBC’s Foreign Affairs Correspondent. He has also served as the BBC’s former Yugoslavia, Moscow, South Africa and Africa correspondent.