"Thatcher Must Stay Away from Africa"

Zimbabwe Herald

The ordinary British, French, German, Belgian,
Portuguese and Spanish man or woman did not benefit
from the colonies.

In fact, they were expected to die for them when
troops were sent out to crush resistance from
"natives" who felt semi-slavery was not that wonderful
an option.

The people who benefited, Cecil John Rhodes and his
ilk, were those who guided the process and made sure
they won the commercial rewards, looting Africa and
the pockets of their metropolitan taxpayers.Unlike many of the lesser figures in the planned
mercenary invasion of Equitorial Guinea, Mark Thatcher
will not actually see the inside of a prison cell
despite the nine-year jail sentence imposed by a South
African court.

He managed, under a plea bargain, to commute five
years of that jail term to a fine of R3 million (Z$3
billion) and have the other four years suspended.

He can consider himself an extremely fortunate man and
can yet again thank his lucky stars that his mother
was a very prominent person at one time in her life,
so all sorts of diplomatic horse-trading was possible.

But what his conviction and heavy sentence under South
Africa’s anti-mercenary laws show is that the plot to
overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea was not
some figment of the imagination of a Zimbabwean
intelligence officers, as was being suggested when one
group of mercenaries was arrested in Harare.

It is now apparent that a lot of the invective thrown
at Zimbabwe was nothing more than a smokescreen to
protect the planners and leaders of the murky invasion
plot.

Some have escaped but Simon Mann is serving a lengthy
sentence in Harare and Mark Thatcher (the second
baronet Thatcher no less) has lost a modest chunk of
his dubious fortune and has had his family’s name
trashed across the newspapers of the world.

What is so horrifying about Thatcher’s involvement is
that it was not because he felt that a new government
in Equatorial Guinea would be an advantage for that
country.

Nor was he some immature man whose only skill was
fighting, as it appears were the would-be mercenaries
coming to the end of their jail terms in Zimbabwe.

One can, in a way, feel sorry for them after they were
duped into an adventure by rich businessmen who read
too many adventure novels.

It is now clear that Thatcher wanted to impose a
puppet on Equatorial Guinea who would give him and his
gang unlimited access to the country’s vast oil
reserves.

Those days have gone.

Even a small and exposed country like Equatorial
Guinea is still able to resist such freebooters.

And in any case, as Sir Mark found out in a Cape Town
court and his team found out in Harare, Africa does
now stand united against such dreadful people as
himself.

Thatcher’s lawyer mentioned, in his statement, that
Sir Mark could return to South Africa whenever he
wanted.

We feel that he should stay away from Africa.

People like him were not wanted a century ago and are
not wanted today.